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SOME  GREAT  LEADERS  IN 
THE   WORLD  MOVEMENT 


THE  COLE  LECTURES 

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Some  Great  Leaders  in  the  World 
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By  Robert  E.  Speer, 

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delivered  before   Vaiiderbilt  University 


Some  Great  Leaders  in 
The  World   Movement 


By 
ROBERT  E.  SPEER 


New  York  Chicago  Toronto 

Fleming     H.     Revell     Company 

London  and  Edinburgh 


Copyright,  191 1,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


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THE  COLE  LECTURES 


THE  late  Colonel  E.  W.  Cole  of  Nashville,  Ten- 
nessee, donated  to  Vanderbilt  University  the  sum 
of  five  thousand  dollars,  afterwards  increased  by 
Mrs.  E.  W.  Cole  to  ten  thousand,  the  design  and  con- 
ditions of  which  gift  are  stated  as  follows  : 

"  The  object  of  this  fund  is  to  establish  a  foundation 
for  a  perpetual  Lectureship  in  connection  with  the  Bib- 
^  lical  Department  of  the  University,  to  be  restricted  in  its 

scope  to  a  defense  and  advocacy  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion. The  lectures  shall  be  delivered  at  such  inter- 
vals, from  time  to  time,  as  shall  be  deemed  best  by  the 
Board  of  Trust ;  and  the  particular  theme  and  lecturer 
shall  be  determined  by  nomination  of  the  Theological 
Faculty  and  confirmation  of  the  College  of  Bishops  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South.  Said  lecture 
shall  always  be  reduced  to  writing  in  full,  and  the  man- 
uscript of  the  same  shall  be  the  property  of  the  Univer- 
sity, to  be  published  or  disposed  of  by  the  Board  of 
Trust  at  its  discretion,  the  net  proceeds  arising  there- 
5  from  to  be  added  to  the  foundation  fund,  or  otherwise 
used  for  the  benefit  of  the  Biblical  Department." 


'd7Q092 


Foreword 

I  AM  very  grateful  for  the  honour  and  privilege 
of  the  appointment  to  this  lectureship.  Some 
of  life's  best  friendships  have  been  with  men  of 
this  University  and  of  this  Department  of  the  Uni- 
versity, and  it  is  with  thankful  remembrance  of  them 
that  I  propose  to  speak  of  some  of  the  great  leaders 
who  preceded  them  and  whose  wide  thoughts  and 
high  spirit  this  University  has  sought  to  perpetuate. 

E.  E.  S. 

New  York  City. 


Contents 

I.  Raymond  Lull,  The  Christian  Cru- 

sader AND  His  Conquest         .        .       1 1 

II.  William  Carey,  The  Christian  Pio- 

neer and  His  Problems  .        .         -55 

III.  Alexander     Duff,    The     Christian 

Student  and  the  World's  Educa- 
tion   lOI 

IV.  George  Bowen,  The  Christian  Mys- 

tic AND  the  Ascetic  Ideal      .        .153 

V.  John      Lawrence,     The     Christian 

Statesman    and    the   Problem   of 
Religion  and  Politics    .        .        -197 

VI.  Charles  George  Gordon,  The  Chris- 

tian    Knight    Errant     and     the 
Power  of  Pure  Devotion      .        .     245 


LECTURE  I 

RAYMOND  LULL,  THE  CHRISTIAN 
CRUSADER    AND   HIS   CONQUEST 


LECTURE  I 

RAYMOND  LULL,  THE  CHRISTIAN  CRU- 
SADER AND  HIS  CONQUEST 

THE  two  most  powerful  forces  in  the  world 
are  principles  and  personalities.  It  is  by 
these  that  the  living  movements  of  the 
world  are  advanced,  by  the  truth  which  they  embody 
and  the  men  who  embody  them.  We  who  are  here 
to-day  do  not  hold  to  the  philosophy  that  the  truth 
in  such  movements  is  the  creation  of  the  men  who 
hold  it.  We  believe  that  the  truth  is  the  truth 
whether  men  find  it  or  miss  it,  declare  it  or  deny  it, 
and  that  by  itself  it  is  ever  at  work  in  the  world. 
Eight  principles,  we  hold,  exist  independent  of  their 
discovery  and  are  ever  operating  on  life  by  the  Di- 
vine Spirit.  We  believe  this  because  we  believe  in 
God  Who  is  the  Truth,  Who  lives  in  Himself  and 
not  alone  in  man's  apprehension  of  Him,  and  works 
by  Himself  and  not  alone  in  the  assenting  wills  of 
men.  But  we  hold,  also,  that  God  is  seeking  men 
who  will  advance  the  truth  by  making  it  a  part  of 
themselves,  and  who  will  give  to  principles  a  home 
and  a  leverage  within  their  personalities,  and  in  so 
doing  recover  for  personality  its  true  glory  and 
power.  Indeed,  it  is  the  very  glory  and  power  of 
God  Himself  that  in  Him  principle  and  personality 
are  perfectly  one.  He  is  what  we  can  only  say  that 
we  have.     Man  holds  the  truth.     God  is  the  Truth. 

13 


14  RAYMOND   LULL 

Man  does  right.  God  is  Eiglit.  From  tlie  begin- 
ning the  self- revelation  of  God  was  a  revelation  of 
principle  as  personality.  "Who  shall  I  say  sent 
me?  "  asked  Moses.  **  Say  '  I  am  '  hath  sent  you," 
replied  Jehovah, — not  He  Who  has  power,  but  He 
Who  is  Power  ;  not  He  Who  declares  truth,  but  He 
Who  is  Truth. 

The  Incarnation  is  the  central  fact  in  history,  and 
the  most  powerful  agency  in  the  life  of  the  world, 
because  it  was  the  supreme  and  faultless  instance  of 
the  highest  principle  and  the  purest  personality  per- 
fectly joined  and  interfused.  And  human  personal- 
ities have  had  lasting  beneficent  power  in  proportion 
as  they  have  resembled  the  Incarnate  Personality  and 
have  embodied  eternal  principles  in  life  and  contrib- 
uted to  the  ceaseless  effort  to  solve  our  human  prob- 
lems by  ordering  life  according  to  the  eternal  prin- 
ciples which  are  the  character  of  God.  I  think, 
accordingly,  that  whether  we  seek  guidance  or  in- 
spiration, needing  courage  for  our  own  struggle  or 
light  on  the  central  issues  of  life,  no  study  can  be 
more  profitable  to  us  than  the  study  of  such  person- 
alities as  these  in  their  wrestle  with  great  problems 
and  their  embodiment  of  the  great  principles  of  the 
kingdom  of  Christ. 

We  are  to  consider  six  leaders  whose  lives  will 
illustrate  some  of  these  fundamental  principles.  But 
they  will  do  more  than  this.  They  will  recall  us  to 
the  highest  standards  of  duty  and  devotion.  They 
will  bring  us  into  contact  with  the  deepest  problems 
of  human  progress.  From  some  of  them  we  shall 
learn  how  profound  and  lasting  an  impression  humble 
men,  without  resources  or  any  adventitious  aids  to 


THE  CHRISTIAN   CRUSADER  I5 

influence,  can  make  upon  the  life  of  the  world,  and 
others,  alas,  will  show  how,  in  the  age-long  work  of 
the  Church,  applying  the  redemption  of  Christ  to  the 
world,  the  richest  personal  influence  may  appear  to 
spend  itself  fruitlessly,  leaving  no  enduring  im- 
pression upon  the  elements  which  it  sought  to  mould, 
abiding  only,  as  far  as  man  may  see,  in  a  fragrance 
of  holy  life  and  passionate  love  in  the  Church  and  in 
an  unanswered  but  immortal  summons  to  the  com- 
pletion of  what  it  attempted  to  begin. 

It  is  a  good  thing  for  us  at  this  time  of  proper  zeal 
for  immediacy  in  the  work  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ, 
to  consider  carefully  the  lives  of  some  of  these  men 
who  represented  the  unconquerable  patience  of  the 
Christian  spirit.  Bushnell  has  advanced  as  one  of 
the  characteristics  of  Jesus,  forbidding  His  classifica- 
tion with  men,  the  quality  of  faith  which  enabled 
Him  to  sit  down  in  quietness  before  a  perpetual 
project.  The  spirit  of  a  human  institution,  or  the 
spirit  of  a  man  may  enable  the  institution  or  the  man 
to  meet  with  unwavering  courage  and  determination 
the  sharpest  tests  of  a  definite  campaign.  But  the 
Christian  movement  is  not  a  definite  campaign.  It 
has  lasted  for  centuries.  It  is  full  of  disappointments 
which  crush  the  heart  and  break  the  will.  If  any 
agency  embarks  on  it  in  the  human  spirit  alone,  it 
is  doomed  to  shameful  disaster.  Nothing  but  the 
Christian  spirit  has  ever  shown  itself  capable  of  the 
patience  and  the  sacrifice  demanded  of  men  who  are 
not  engaged  in  a  four  months'  or  a  four  years'  or  a 
four  centuries'  campaign,  but  in  a  project  as  per- 
petual as  the  need  of  man  and  the  love  of  Christ  for 
the  lost.     Whoever  will  do  truly  in  the  world  the 


l6  RAYMOND   LULL 

work  of  the  Church,  must  do  it  in  the  spirit  of  the 
great  but  simple  men  whom  we  are  to  consider,  who 
followed  Christ  and  in  consequence  led  their  fellow 
men. 

Of  the  six  whose  lives  we  are  to  review  and  the 
lessons  of  whose  leadership  we  are  to  study,  two, 
"William  Carey  and  Alexander  Duff,  were  great  mis- 
sionaries who  had  the  statesman's  vision  and  power, 
and  whose  names  are  known  to  all  the  Christian 
Church;  two,  John  Lawrence  and  "Chinese"  Gor- 
don, were  great  political  administrators  who  had  the 
missionary's  spirit  and  devotion  and  who  appealed 
as  much  as  any  two  men  of  the  nineteenth  century  to 
all  that  was  heroic  and  chivalrous  in  the  imagination 
of  the  world ;  and  two,  Eaymond  Lull  and  George 
Bowen,  though  they  stand  together  in  the  foremost 
rank  of  Christian  men  who  rose  to  uniqueness  of 
character  and  conceived  and  fulfilled  original  tasks, 
have  had  but  a  small  place  in  Christian  literature 
and  perhaps  no  place  at  all  in  the  thought  of  some  of 
us  who  are  gathered  here  to-day.  There  is  no  biog- 
raphy at  all  of  Bowen  (perhaps  the  greatest  present 
lack  in  missionary  literature),  and  there  has  been 
until  recently  no  English  life  of  Lull.  "We  need  to 
become  better  acquainted  with  all  of  these  men,  espe- 
cially with  these  two  of  whom  probably  we  know 
least.  Such  acquaintance  with  the  greatest  man  who 
ever  went  forth  to  the  Mohammedans  and  with  the 
most  holy  and  revered  missionary  in  India  in  his 
day,  and  perhaps  in  any  day,  will  help  each  of  us 
who,  realizing  his  own  imperfectness  of  character,  is 
ready  to  learn  from  another  what  far  greater  things 
are  possible  and  how  they  may  be  attained. 


THE   CHRISTIAN   CRUSADER  I7 

For  after  all,  all  worthy  greatness  is  greatness  of 
character,  and  while,  as  the  lives  of  Lull  and  Bo  wen 
and  Gordon,  also,  sadly  prove,  greatness  of  character 
may  lavish  itself  in  vain  upon  those  whom  it  seeks 
to  win,  yet  nothing  else  will  succeed  where  it  fails, 
unless  it  is  with  a  meretricious  or  inferior  success. 
The  high  and  real  work  of  the  world,  the  work  that 
is  essentially  and  distinctively  Christian,  is  personal 
influence  grounded  in  and  springing  from  char- 
acter. 

In  the  missionary  propaganda,  especially,  the  su- 
preme element  is  personality.  It  is  not  linguistic 
skill,  or  intellectual  superiority,  or  fertility  of  method, 
or  masterfulness  of  organization,  or  physical  endur- 
ance. All  these  are  valuable  and  desirable,  but  the 
one  vital  and  indispensable  thing  is  holy  personality, 
the  presence  in  the  human  agent  of  the  divine  life, 
and  the  unwearied  attempt  to  impart  that  life  through 
the  exposure  of  personality,  so  to  speak, — its  living 
contact  with  other  living  spirits,  lacking  as  yet  the 
divine  indwelling.  If  this  mode  of  speech  seems  to 
be  mystical,  it  is  only  because  Christianity  cannot 
be  stated  otherwise.  Even  Harnack,  who  wants  no 
mystical  Christology  in  his  Gospel,  admits  that  **it 
is  not  as  a  mere  factor  that  He  (Jesus)  is  connected 
with  the  Gospel ;  He  was  its  personal  realization  and 
its  strength,  and  this  He  is  felt  to  be  still.  Fire  is 
kindled  by  fire  ;  personal  life  only  by  personal  forces. 
.  .  .  The  Gospel  nowhere  says  that  God's  mercy 
is  limited  to  Jesus'  mission.  But  history  shows  that 
He  is  the  one  Who  brings  the  weary  and  the  heavy- 
laden  to  God  ;  and,  again,  that  He  it  was  Who  raised 
mankind  to  the  new  level  and  His  teaching  is  still 


l8  RAYMOND   LULL 

the  touchstone,  in  that  it  brings  men  to  bliss  and  to 
judgment.  .  .  .  For  those  who  followed  Him, 
Jesus  was  Himself  the  strength  of  the  Gospel.  What 
they  experienced,  however,  and  came  to  know  in  and 
through  Him,  they  have  told  the  world ;  and  this 
message  is  still  a  living  force."  It  is  on  Harnack's 
own  showing  a  living  force  because  it  carries  and 
kindles  a  personal  life. 

The  simple  truth  is  that  Christianity  is  Christ,  not 
metaphorically  but  really,  and  true  Christians  pro- 
claim Christ,  not  metaphorically,  but  actually.  As 
they  live  truly,  they  live  Christ  and  embodying  in 
themselves  the  divine  life,  they  go  out  to  communi- 
cate it  to  the  world.  All  philanthropic  and  educa- 
tional aspects  of  Christian  work  are  secondary.  If 
they  do  not  flow  from  the  inner  divine  life  as  their 
source,  they  are  unreliable  and  precarious.  If  the 
inner  divine  spring  is  there,  all  such  accessory  bene- 
fits flow  forth  continually.  St.  Paul's  interpretation 
is  eternally  true.  What  a  man  is  in  Christ  and  what 
Christ  is  in  a  man — these  are  the  only  questions  of 
any  significance.  It  is  with  men  in  Christ  and  Christ 
in  men  that  we  are  to  meet  in  these  leaders  in  the 
moral  movement  of  the  world. 

Of  all  the  men  of  his  century  of  whom  we  know, 
Eaymond  Lull  was  most  possessed  by  this  love  and 
life  of  Christ  and  most  eager,  accordingly,  to  share 
his  possession  with  the  world.  The  world  sadly 
needed  it ;  the  Church  scarcely  less.  It  brings  out 
the  greatness  of  Lull's  character  strikingly  to  note 
how  sharply  he  rose  above  the  world  and  Church  of 
his  day,  anticipating  by  many  centuries  moral  stand- 
ards, intellectual  conceptions  and  missionary  ambi- 


THE   CHRISTIAN   CRUSADER  I9 

tions  to  which  we  have  grown  only  slowly  since  the 
Reformation.  What  the  general  state  of  morality 
was,  in  the  thirteenth  century,  may  be  gathered  from 
the  character  of  the  popes.  * '  Gregory  VII  and  Inno- 
cent III  were  great  popes  and  mighty  reformers  of  a 
corrupt  priesthood,  but  they  were  exceptions  in  the 
long  list.  One  of  the  popes  was  deposed  on  charges 
of  incest,  perjury,  murder  and  blasphemy.  Many 
were  in  power  through  simony.  Concubinage  and 
unnatural  vices  were  rife  in  Eome  among  the 
clergy.  Innocent  IV,  who  reigned  the  very  year 
Lull  was  born,  was  an  outrageous  tyrant.  Nicholas 
in  and  Martin  IV  were  popes  towards  the  close 
of  the  century.  The  pontificate  of  the  first  was 
so  marked  with  rapacity  and  nepotism,  that  he 
was  consigned  by  Dante  to  his  Inferno.  The  lat- 
ter was  the  infamous  cause  of  the  terrible  Sicilian 
Vespers."  ^ 

Intellectually,  as  Symonds  says,  '*  there  were  by  no 
means  lacking  elements  of  native  vigour,  ready  to 
burst  forth.  But  the  courage  that  is  born  of  knowl- 
edge, the  calm  strength  begotten  of  a  positive  attitude 
of  mind,  face  to  face  with  the  dominant  overshadow- 
ing sphinx  of  theology,  were  lacking.  We  may 
fairly  say  that  natural  and  untaught  people  had  more 
of  the  just  intuition  that  was  needed  than  learned  folk 
trained  in  the  schools.  Man  and  the  universe  kept 
on  reasserting  their  rights  and  claims  in  one  way  or 
another  ;  but  they  were  always  being  thrust  back  into 
Cimmerian  regions  of  abstractions,  fictions,  visions, 
spectral  hopes  and  fears,  in  the  midst  of  which  the 
intellect  somnambulistically  moved  upon  an  unknown 
^Zwemer,  "  Eaymond  Lull,"  Chapter  I. 


20  RAYMOND   LULL 

way."  '  It  was  an  age  of  superstition  coupled  with 
the  fear  of  investigation  of  the  world,  when  Koger 
Bacon  was  sent  to  a  dungeon  for  too  much  inquiry  ; 
of  superstition  coupled  with  a  passion  for  the  inves- 
tigation of  the  inner  heart,  when  the  Flagelants 
scourged  themselves  over  Europe  and  Catherine  of 
Sienna  and  St.  Francis  of  Assisi  saw  visions.  And 
far  and  wide  the  tides  of  life  were  beginning  to 
move. 

The  most  picturesque  feature  of  the  times  and  the 
one  which  bore  closest  relation  to  the  life  and  work 
of  Lull  was  the  conflict  between  Christianity  and 
Islam.  For  nearly  a  century  and  a  half,  at  the  time 
of  Lull's  birth,  the  Crusades  had  shaken  Europe  and 
the  Holy  Land,  and  tide  after  tide  of  life,  the  best 
and  the  worst,  had  poured  out  of  Europe  at  flood, 
only  to  ebb  again  in  weakness  and  disaster.  Here 
and  there,  some  earnest  soul  strove  to  save  and  not 
to  slaughter  the  Moslems.  Francis  of  Assisi  was  one 
of  these.  He  attempted  in  1219  the  evangelization 
of  ''the  Saracen  hosts,  then  besieged  in  Damietta  by 
a  mass  of  crusading  Franks.  Although  there  was  a 
price  upon  every  Christian's  head,  the  missionary,  in 
his  mendicant's  gray  robe  and  cord  of  self-denial, 
chanting  the  Twenty-third  Psalm,  crossed  over  to  the 
infidels  and  was  hurried  into  the  Sultan's  presence, 
to  whom  he  declared  :  '  I  am  sent  not  of  man,  but  of 
God,  to  show  thee  the  way  of  salvation. '  His  cour- 
age, which  to  the  Oriental  seemed  the  inspiration  of 
madness,  was  his  safeguard  ;  he  was  dismissed  with 
honour,  and  he  lived  to  induce  the  Sultan  Nuledeen 

1 "  Encyclopedia  Brittanica,"  VoL  XX,  p.  383,  "The  Renais- 
Eance." 


THE  CHRISTIAN   CRUSADER  21 

to  treat  the  Christian  captives  kindly  and  to  give  the 
Franciscans  the  guardianship  of  the  sepulchre  of 
Christ."'  The  preaching  friars  also  "who  started 
into  existence  the  early  part  of  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, had  renounced  the  idea  of  solitary  life  in  the 
monasteries  and  gone  forth  among  the  masses ;  and 
to  Saracens,  Moors  and  Hebrews,  as  well  as  to  heathens 
and  professing  Christians,  they  had  carried  such  a 
Gospel  as  they  knew. ' ' '  But  all  this  was  exceptional, 
aud  the  general  attitude  of  Europe  towards  Moslems 
was  an  attitude  of  hatred  and  contempt.  Christiana 
would  go  to  trouble  to  kill  the  Mohammedans  and  to 
wrest  the  sepulchre  of  Christ  from  them,  but  not  to 
save  them  or  win  them  to  faith  in  the  Christ  Who  had 
occupied  the  sepulchre.  Eaymond  Lull  was  raised 
up  to  spend  a  great  life  in  attempting  to  teach  the 
Church  a  new  attitude  towards  Islam. 

He  was  born  in  1235,  in  Palma,  the  capital  of 
Majorca,  an  island  of  the  Baleiric  group,  wrested  by 
James  I,  King  of  Arragon,  from  the  Saracens,  Lull's 
father  serving  in  the  army  of  conquest.  He  grew  up 
in  luxury,  and  as  he,  himself,  says,  in  sensual  living. 
Fond  of  pleasure,  he  and  his  young  wife  moved  from 
the  island  to  the  court  of  James  II,  King  of  Arragon, 
and  there  he  became  Seneschal  of  the  court.  He  was 
a  musician,  playing  the  cithern  with  skill,  a  poet 
dealing  usually  with  the  pleasures  of  dishonourable 
love,  and  the  most  popular  poet,  too,  of  his  age  in 
Spain,  but  sensual  and  careless.  "I  see,  O  Lord," 
he  wrote  in  after  life  in  his  book  on  "The  Contem- 
plation of  God,"  "that  the  trees  every  year  bring 

> Smith,  "Shorfe  History  of  Christian  Missions,"  p.  101  f. 
*  Walsh,  "Heroes  of  the  Mission  Field,"  p.  146. 


22  RAYMOND   LULL 

forth  flowers  and  fruit  by  which  men  are  refreshed 
and  nourished  ;  but  it  is  not  so  with  me  a  sinner. 
For  thirty  years  I  have  borne  no  fruit  in  the  world  ; 
yea,  rather  I  have  injured  my  neighbours  and  friends. 
If,  therefore,  the  tree  which  is  destitute  of  reason 
brings  forth  more  fruit  than  I  have  done,  I  must  be 
deeply  ashamed  and  acknowledge  my  great  guilt." 

Lull  was  not  spending  all  these  years  in  pure  idle- 
ness, however.  Beside  his  music,  he  was  interested 
in  all  sorts  of  subjects,  in  science  and  discovery  and 
most  of  all  in  life.  lie  was  exceedingly  popular  and 
well  liked,  and  all  the  qualities  and  training  of  these 
wasted  days,  he  was  later  to  find  of  use. 

At  the  age  of  thirty-two,  he  went  back  to  Palma, 
and  it  was  there  that  his  life  was  turned.  As  he  sat 
one  evening  on  his  couch  with  his  cithern  on  his  knee, 
composing  a  sensual  song  in  praise  of  a  married 
woman  who  had  failed  to  respond  to  his  love,  he 
looked  up  and  saw  "on  his  right  hand  the  Saviour 
hanging  on  His  cross,  the  blood  trickling  from  His 
hands  and  feet  and  brow,  looking  reproachfully  at 
him."  Deeply  impressed.  Lull  laid  aside  his  cithern 
and  lay  down  on  his  couch.  Eight  days  later,  he 
took  up  his  cithern  to  complete  the  song,  and  again 
the  Saviour  appeared  to  him.  It  was  enough.  The 
vision  never  again  left  him,  and  he  rose  up  that  day 
from  his  life  of  sin  and  uncleanness  to  follow  the 
Saviour  Whom  he  had  seen.  The  old  life  did  not  re- 
lease him  without  a  struggle,  and  the  issue  was  in 
doubt  until  some  months  after  his  visions  of  the  cru- 
cified Lord,  he  went  on  the  4th  of  October,  1266, 
to  the  Franciscan  Church  in  Palma,  at  the  Festival 
of  St.   Francis  of  Assisi.     There,  he  heard  a  friar 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CRUSADER  23 

preacher  tell  the  story  of  St.  Francis  who,  ''son  of  a 
rich  merchant,  lover  of  pleasure  and  imprisoned  in 
his  youth  for  a  brawl,  was  suddenly  arrested  by  the 
Spirit  of  God.  Hearing  the  voice  amid  the  loneliness 
of  the  Umbrian  Hills,  'My  temple  is  falling  into 
ruins,  restore  it,'  he  took  poverty  as  his  bride.  He 
founded  the  Order  of  Seraphic  Brethren,  Minorites  or 
Greyfriars,  who  from  their  number  and  care  for  the 
poor  have  been  called  the  democracy  of  Chris- 
tianity. "  ^  Lull  listened  to  the  whole  story  of  Francis, 
of  the  stigmata  of  Christ,  of  his  passion  of  love,  of 
the  fearlessness  of  his  missionary  spirit,  of  his  zeal 
for  the  conversion  of  the  Saracens.  The  flame 
burned  anew  in  his  own  soul.  He  decided  that  he 
also  would  renounce  the  world  for  Christ.  This  was 
his  vow  of  consecration  :  "  To  Thee,  O  Lord  God,  I 
offer  myself,  my  wife,  my  children  and  all  that  I 
possess.  May  it  please  Thee,  "Who  didst  so  humble 
Thyself  to  the  death  of  the  cross,  to  condescend  to 
accept  all  that  I  give  and  offer  to  Thee,  that  I,  my 
wife  and  my  children  may  be  Thy  lowly  servants." 
Accordingly,  he  sold  his  property,  provided  for  his 
family  and  set  out  upon  the  hard  and  lonely  mission 
of  his  life. 

"  Yes,  without  cheer  of  sister  or  of  daughter, 
Yes,  without  stay  of  father  or  of  son ; 
Lone  on  the  land,  and  homeless  on  the  water, 
Pass  I  in  patience  till  the  work  be  done." 

Some  biographers  speak  of  a  period  of  retirement, 
lasting  nine  years,  which  he  spent  in  a  cell  on  Mount 
Eoda,  enjoying  heavenly  illumination  and  conclud- 

*  Smith,  "Short  History  of  Christian  Missions,"  p.  101. 


24  RAYMOND   LULL 

ing  at  the  end  of  it  that  he  was  called  to  preach  the 
Gospel  to  the  Mohammedans.  Whether  he  had 
these  nine  years  of  solitude  or  not,  he  had  the 
heavenly  illumination  and  we  could  not  ask  any  bet- 
ter credential  than  the  fashion  of  the  man's  life  and 
the  intensity  and  purity  of  devotion  with  which  he 
gave  himself  thenceforth  to  the  one  great  object  of 
his  life — the  evangelization  of  Islam.  No  man  is 
likely  to  choose  that  for  his  life-work  without  some 
constraint  outside  of  his  own  will.  And  the  man 
who  gives  himself  to  it  as  Lull  did,  is  manifestly 
guided  by  God. 

At  the  same  time  it  was  most  natural  that  Lull 
should  turn  to  the  Mohammedan  missionary  problem. 
Majorca  and  Minorca  had  but  recently  been  in 
Moslem  hands.  His  family  history  and  his  racial 
training  kept  the  idea  of  the  Saracens  in  his  mind. 
And  above  all,  the  Crusades  were  over  and  a  man  as 
discerning  as  Lull  could  see  that  the  results  were 
nothing  and  the  method  barren.  *'I  see  many 
knights  going  to  the  Holy  Land  beyond  the  seas,"  he 
said,  ''and  thinking  that  they  can  acquire  it  by 
force  of  arms  ;  but  in  the  end,  all  are  destroyed  before 
they  attain  that  which  they  think  to  have.  Whence 
it  seems  to  me  that  the  conquest  of  the  Holy  Land 
ought  not  to  be  attempted  except  in  the  way  in  which 
Thou  and  Thy  apostles  acquired  it,  namely,  by  love 
and  prayers  and  the  pouring  out  of  tears  and  blood." 
In  this  way,  Eaymond  Lull  proposed  to  attempt  to 
reach  the  Mohammedan  world. 

Lull  realized,  as  few  did,  the  nature  of  his  problem. 
It  is  evidence  of  his  greatness  that  he  realized  that  it 
was  a  problem.     Most  of  his  contemporaries  were 


THE  CHRISTIAN   CRUSADER  25 

either  largely  or  totally  ignorant  of  the  character, 
both  of  Islam  and  of  Mohammed.  They  did  not 
know  Arabic,  were  unacquainted  with  the  Koran, 
hated  the  Saracen  as  an  enemy  and  recognized  no 
missionary  duty  towards  him  as  a  man.  Lull  per- 
ceived that  a  radically  different  attitude  of  mind  was 
necessary  and  at  once  adopted  it  for  himself. 

His  first  plan  was  to  compose  a  book  which  would 
demonstrate  to  the  Mohammedans  the  truth  and 
superiority  of  Christianity,  but  he  realized  that  he  was 
as  yet  unprepared  to  write  such  a  book,  and  un- 
acquainted with  Arabic  in  which  it  would  have  to  be 
■written  if  it  was  to  reach  Moslems.  He  thought  of 
going  to  Paris  to  prepare  himself  for  the  great  con- 
troversy, but  a  Dominican  kinsman  persuaded  him  to 
stay  in  Majorca  and  study  there.  His  first  work  was 
to  master  Arabic.  As  no  other  teacher  was  avail- 
able, he  bought  a  Saracen  slave  and  for  nine  years 
was  engaged  in  the  study  of  the  language  with  his 
slave.  ''After  this  long,  and  we  may  believe,  suc- 
cessful apprenticeship,"  says  Dr.  Zwemer,  ''with  the 
Saracen  slave,  a  tragic  incident  interrupted  his 
studies.  Lull  had  learned  the  language  of  the 
Moslem,  but  the  Moslem  slave  had  not  yet  learned 
the  love  of  Christ ;  nor  had  his  pupil.  In  the  midst 
of  these  studies  on  one  occasion,  the  Saracen 
blasphemed  Christ.  How  we  are  not  told ;  but 
those  who  are  among  Moslems  know  what  cruel, 
vulgar  words  can  come  from  Moslem  lips  against  the 
Son  of  God.  When  Lull  heard  the  blasphemy,  he 
struck  his  slave  violently  in  the  face  in  his  strong  in- 
dignation. The  Moslem,  stung  to  the  quick,  drew  a 
weapon,   attempted    Lull's   life  and  wounded  him 


26  RAYMOND  LULL 

severely.  He  was  seized  and  imprisoned.  Perhaps 
fearing  the  death  penalty  for  attempted  murder,  the 
Saracen  slave  committed  suicide.  It  was  a  sad  be- 
ginning for  Lull  in  his  work  of  preparation.  Patience 
had  not  yet  had  its  perfect  work.  Lull  felt  more 
than  ever  before  *  He  that  loves  not,  lives  not.'  The 
vision  of  the  thorn-crowned  head  came  back  to  him  j 
he  could  not  forget  his  covenant.  Although  he  re- 
tired for  eight  days  to  a  mountain  to  engage  in 
prayer  and  meditation,  he  did  not  falter,  but  per- 
severed in  his  resolution."  * 

If  disciples  are  to  be  won  in  all  nations,  they  must 
be  won  by  preaching  the  Gospel  and  the  Gospel  can 
only  be  preached  by  men  who  learn  the  various 
languages  of  the  earth.  Lull  saw  this,  so  obvious  to 
us,  so  new  to  men  in  Lull's  days.  "O  Thou  true 
Light  of  all  lights,"  he  prays,  *'as  Thy  grace  through 
the  true  Faith  has  enriched  Christians  before  unbe- 
lievers, so  they  are  bound  to  demonstrate  the  true 
faith  to  unbelievers.  .  .  .  The  holy  Church, 
which  consists  of  the  souls  of  just  Catholic  men, 
would  be  far  more  beautiful,  if  there  were  men 
acquainted  with  different  languages,  who  would  go 
through  the  earth,  that  unrighteous  and  unbelieving 
men  might  hear  the  praises  of  the  glorious  Trinity 
and  of  Thy  blessed  humanity  and  of  Thy  painful 
passion." 

While  engaged  in  studying  Arabic,  Lull  was  de- 
veloping his  idea  of  a  great  apologetic  Christian 
statement  designed  to  meet  the  difficulties  in  men's 
minds  in  the  way  of  accepting  Christianity  ;  and  es- 
pecially to  convince  Mohammedans  of  its  divine 
*  Zwemer,  "  Raymond  Lull,"  Chapter  IV. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CRUSADER  27 

truth.  Either  Lull  or  a  relative  of  his  had  persuaded 
Thomas  Aquiuas  to  write  his  book,  "  On  the  Catholic 
Faith,  or  Summary  against  the  Gentiles."  Now  Lull 
himself  undertook  the  task  and  the  result  was  his 
"Ars  Major  sine  Generalis.''  ''This  remarkable 
treatise,"  says  Dr.  Zwemer,  "  while  in  one  sense  in- 
tended for  the  special  work  of  convincing  Moslems, 
was  to  include  '  a  universal  art  of  acquisition,  demon- 
stration, confutation '  and  meant  '  to  cover  the  whole 
field  of  knowledge  and  to  supersede  the  inadequate 
methods  of  previous  schoolmen.'  "  Lull's  aim  was 
to  use  the  scholastic  method  not  only  in  the  Church, 
but  as  a  missionary  agency,  and  to  win  the  Moslem 
and  the  heathen  by  convincing  them  in  fair  discus- 
sion of  the  superiority  of  Christianitj\  ' '  In  his  as- 
sertion of  the  place  of  reason  in  religion,  in  his  de- 
mand that  a  rational  Christianity  should  be  presented 
to  heathendom,  Lull  goes  far  beyond  the  ideas  and 
the  aspirations  of  the  century  in  which  he  lived. 
.  .  .  In  judging  the  character  of  Lull's  method, 
and  his  long  period  of  preparation,  one  thing  must 
not  be  forgotten.  The  strength  of  Islam  in  the  age 
of  scholasticism  was  its  philosophy.  Having  thor- 
oughly entered  into  the  spirit  of  Arabian  philosoph- 
ical writings  and  seen  its  errors,  there  was  nothing 
left  for  a  man  of  Lull's  intellect  than  to  meet  these 
Saracen  philosophers  on  their  own  ground.  Avi- 
cenna,  Algazel  and  Averroes  sat  on  the  throne  of 
Moslem  thought.  Lull's  object  was  to  undermine 
their  influence  and  so  reach  the  Moslem  heart  with 
the  message  of  salvation.  For  such  a  conflict  and  in 
such  an  age,  his  weapons  were  well  chosen."  ' 
^  Zwemer,  "  Raymond  Lull,"  Chapter  IV. 


28  RAYMOND   LULL 

The  method  of  Lull  became  well  known  and  his 
art,  the  LuUian  art,  was  very  famous  in  his  day.  In- 
deed, it  has  been  said  that  ''for  two  centuries,  the 
name  of  Eaymond  Lull  was  the  best  known  and  per- 
haps the  most  influential  in  Europe."  '  The  art  of 
Lull  seems  very  absurd  and  antiquated  to  us  to-day, 
however.  It  ' '  goes  beyond  logic  and  metaphysic  ; 
as  a  universal  topic,  it  provides  a  universal  art  of 
discovery  and  contains  the  formulas  to  which  every 
demonstration  in  every  science  can  be  reduced.  A 
sort  of  cyclopedia  of  categories  and  syllogisms  .  .  . 
a  mnemonic,  or  rather  a  mechanical  contrivance  for 
ascertaining  all  possible  categories  that  apply  to  a  pos- 
sible proposition.  .  .  .  This  Lullian  method  of  a 
wheel  within  a  wheel  seems  at  first  as  perplexing  as 
the  visions  of  Ezekiel  and  as  puerile  as  the  automatic 
book-machine  in  'Gulliver's  Travels.'  But  it  would 
be  unfair  to  say  that  Lull  supposed  '  thinking  could 
be  reduced  to  a  mere  rotation  of  pasteboard  circles ' 
or  that  his  art  enabled  him  'to  talk  without  judg- 
ment of  that  which  we  do  not  know.'  Lull  sought 
not  to  give  a  compendium  of  knowledge  but  a  method 
of  investigation.  He  sought  a  more  scientific  method 
for  philosophy  than  the  dialectic  of  his  contempo- 
raries. In  his  conception  of  a  universal  method  and 
his  application  of  the  vernacular  languages  to  phi- 
losophy, he  was  the  herald  of  Bacon  himself.  He 
perceived  the  possibilities  (though  not  the  limita- 
tions) of  comparative  theology  and  the  science  of 
logic  as  weapons  for  the  missionary, ' '  ^ 

These  two  great  ideas  of  vernacular  preaching  to 

'  Walsh,  "  Heroes  of  the  Mission  Field,"  p.  145,  quoted. 
' Zwemer,  "  Eaymond  Lull,"  Chapter  VIIL 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CRUSADER  29 

heathen  and  Moslem  and  of  an  unanswerable  apolo- 
getic were  supplemented  by  a  third.  Lull  became 
possessed  with  the  desire  to  found  missionary  colleges 
which  would  send  out  over  the  world  men  who  would 
be  missionaries  after  his  conception.  ' '  I  find  scarcely 
any  one,"  he  says,  "  who  out  of  love  to  Thee,  O  Lord, 
is  ready  to  suffer  martyrdom,  as  Thou  hast  suffered 
for  us.  It  appears  to  me  agreeable  to  reaso d ,  if  an  ordi- 
nance to  that  effect  could  be  obtained,  that  the  monks 
should  know  various  languages,  that  they  might  be 
able  to  go  out  and  surrender  their  lives  in  love  to  Thee. 
.  .  .  O  Lord  of  glory,  if  that  blessed  day  should 
ever  be  in  which  I  might  see  Thy  holy  monks  so 
influenced  by  zeal  to  glorify  Thee,  as  to  go  into 
foreign  lands  in  order  to  testify  of  Thy  holy  minis- 
try, of  Thy  blessed  incarnation,  and  of  Thy  bitter 
sufferings,  that  would  be  a  glorious  day,  a  day  in 
which  that  glow  of  devotion  would  return  with  which 
the  holy  apostles  met  death  for  their  Lord  Jesus 
Christ."  Lull  even  dreamed  of  monks  of  holy  lives 
and  great  wisdom,  ' '  forming  institutions  in  order  to 
learn  various  languages  and  to  be  able  to  preach  to 
unbelievers."  As  he  had  anticipated  our  modern 
missionary  attitude  towards  the  unevangelized,  so  he 
anticipated  here  as  Dr.  Smith  says,  ' '  the  great 
modern  conception  and  agency  of  societies  and 
churches  organized  for  foreign  missions.  One  step 
further,  but  some  slight  response  from  his  Church  or 
his  age,  and  Eaymoud  Lull  would  have  anticipated 
William  Carey  by  exactly  seven  centuries."  ^ 

The  only  successes  with  which  Lull  met  in  his 
attempt  to  establish  colleges  were    two.     (1)    The 
*  Smith,  "  Short  History  of  Christian  Missions,"  p.  105. 


30  RAYMOND   LULL 

king  of  Majorca  established  there  a  monastery  in 
which  monks  were  "to  be  instructed  in  the  Arabic 
language  and  trained  to  become  able  disputants 
among  the  Moslems.  Lull  had  no  narrow  design  for 
this  school.  He  wanted  no  dry,  theoretical  instruc- 
tion. The  language  of  the  people  to  be  reached  was 
taught  and  the  monks  were  to  be  made  familiar  also 
with  the  lands  in  which  they  lived.  ' '  Knowledge 
of  the  regions  of  the  world,"  he  wrote,  "  is  strongly 
necessary  for  the  republic  of  believers  and  the  con- 
version of  unbelievers  and  for  withstanding  infidels 
and  anti-Christ.  The  man  unacquainted  with  geog- 
raphy is  not  only  ignorant  where  he  walks  but 
whither  he  leads.  Whether  he  attempts  the  con- 
version of  infidels  or  works  for  other  interests  of  the 
Church,  it  is  indispensable  that  he  know  the  religions 
and  the  environments  of  all  nations."  That  is  an 
ideal  as  natural  as  it  is  unrealized  in  most  of  our 
theological  schools.  Lull  insisted  that  in  his  schools 
men  should  be  made  familiar  with  the  world  in 
which  they  were  going  to  live  and  for  which  they 
were  to  work.  If  there  ever  was  a  day  when  Lull's 
ideal  was  not  necessary  for  us,  that  day  has  passed 
away.  The  theological  school  is  not  faithful  to  its 
mission  whose  department  of  homiletics,  or  of 
theology,  or  of  church  history  assumes  that  America 
is  the  sole  field  for  the  Christian  minister,  and  that 
its  problems  are  either  the  only  problems  or  the 
supreme  problems  of  the  Church.  (2)  Beside  getting 
his  school  started  at  Majorca,  Lull  strove  to  found 
colleges  elsewhere  and  several  times  went  to  Eome 
to  urge  his  plans.  But  popes  were  busy  with  the 
great  issues  of  their  day,  which  are  too  often  the 


THE   CHRISTIAN   CRUSADER  31 

small  issues  of  all  days,  aud  when  there  were  no 
popes,  the  cardinals  were  busy  making  new  ones 
and  had  no  time  to  waste  on  projects  for  preaching 
the  Gospel,  least  of  all  to  Mohammedans.  All  that 
Lull  got  as  the  result  of  his  long  agitation  was  the 
act  of  the  Council  of  Vienne  in  1311,  decreeing  that 
professorships  of  Oriental  languages  be  established 
in  the  Universities  of  Paris,  Oxford  and  Salamanca. 

I  have  called  these  the  only  successes  which  Lull 
achieved  in  his  scheme  for  educating  missionaries, 
but  these  were  not  small  successes.  "When  one  con- 
siders the  obstacles  in  his  way  they  were  very  great 
successes.  They  are  significant  to  us,  however, 
chiefly  as  revealing  once  more  the  large-mindedness 
of  this  solitary  worker  labouring  for  the  evangeliza- 
tion of  the  world  and  forestalling  in  his  plans  men 
who  came  centuries  later — but  who  forestalled  them 
even  more  by  living  in  the  thirteenth  century  the 
missionary  life  of  the  nineteenth,  and  feeling  then 
the  missionary  motives  to  which  the  Church  came  only 
many  years  afterwards. 

Having  learned  Arabic,  written  his  great  book 
and  done  his  best  to  establish  institutions  in  Europe 
which  would  send  out  a  constant  stream  of  mission- 
aries to  Mohammedans,  Lull  gave  himself  with  all 
his  power  to  a  personal  mission  to  Islam  and  an 
unresting  propaganda  at  home  in  support  of  true 
missions  to  Moslems.  He  believed  in  rational  proc- 
lamation of  the  truth.  He  did  not  propose  to  trust 
to  authority,  to  education,  to  political  influence,  but 
to  the  living  power  of  the  truth  of  Christ.  He  did 
not  fear  discussion,  or  hesitate  to  compare  fairly 
other  religions  with  Christianity.     He  believed  that 


32  RAYMOND   LULL 

Christianity  was  the  truth  and  that  Christ  would 
triumph  as  the  truth  alone,  by  love.  The  spirit 
of  Christ  which  was  in  his  heart  enabled  him  to 
realize  that  it  was  no  small  thing  which  he  demanded 
when  he  asked  men  to  change  their  religion.  His 
position  and  spirit  are  illustrated  in  what  he  said 
about  his  book,  "On  the  Discovery  of  Truth," 
written  while  waiting  at  Eome  in  the  vain  hope  of 
influencing  two  successive  popes  to  adopt  his  mis- 
sion : 

"  We  have  composed  this  treatise  in  order  that  believing 
and  devout  Christians  might  consider  that  while  the  doc- 
trine of  no  other  religious  sect  can  be  proved  to  be  true  by 
its  adherents,  and  none  of  the  truths  of  Christianity  are 
really  vulnerable  on  the  grounds  of  reason,  the  Christian 
faith  cannot  only  be  defended  from  all  its  enemies,  but 
can  also  be  demonstrated.  And,  hence,  animated  by  the 
glowing  zeal  of  faith,  may  they  consider  (since  nothing 
can  withstand  the  truth,  which  is  mightier  than  all)  how 
they  may  be  able  by  force  of  argument,  through  the  help 
and  power  of  God,  to  lead  unbelievers  into  the  way  of 
truth,  so  that  the  blessed  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  which 
is  still  unknown  in  most  parts  of  the  world,  and  among 
most  nations,  may  be  manifested  and  obtain  universal 
adoration.  This  way  of  converting  unbelievers  is  easier 
than  all  others.  For  it  must  appear  hard  to  unbelievers 
to  forsake  their  own  faith  for  a  foreign  one ;  but  who  is 
there  that  will  not  feel  himself  compelled  to  surrender 
falsehood  for  truth  ;  the  self-contradictory  for  the  neces- 
sary ?  .  .  .  Of  all  methods  of  converting  unbelievers 
and  reconquering  the  Holy  Land,  this  is  the  easiest  and 
speediest  which  is  most  congenial  to  love  and  is  so  much 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CRUSADER"  33 

mightier  than  all  other  kinds  and  methods,  in  the  proportion 
that  spiritual  weapons  are  more  effective  than  carnal  ones. 
This  treatise  was  finished  at  Rome  in  the  year  1296,  on 
the  holy  evening  before  the  Feast  of  John  the  Baptist,  the 
forerunner  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  May  he  pray  our 
Lord,  that  as  he  himself  was  the  herald  of  light,  and 
pointed  with  his  finger  to  Him  who  is  the  true  Light,  and 
as  in  his  time  the  dispensation  of  grace  began,  it  may 
please  the  Lord  Jesus  to  spread  a  new  light  over  the 
world,  that  unbelievers  may  walk  in  the  brightness  of 
this  light,  and  be  converted  to  join  with  us  in  meeting 
Him,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  to  Whom  be  praise  and 
glory  forever  !  ' ' 

In  this  spirit,  Lull  devoted  the  last  twenty  years 
of  bis  life  to  the  personal  proclamation  of  the  Gospel 
to  Mohammedans  and  Jews.  The  thirteenth  century 
witnessed  a  great  growth  of  hatred  against  the  Jews. 
At  the  middle  of  the  century,  they  were  expelled 
from  France  and  at  the  close,  from  England.  They 
were  insulted  and  oppressed  in  countless  humiliating 
ways.  But  Lull  included  them  in  his  missionary 
purpose.  He  wrote  books  to  convince  them  of  the 
truth  of  Christianity  and  in  the  interval  of  his  visits 
to  Africa  he  laboured  personally  to  win  the  Jews  of 
Majorca.  But  it  was  the  Moslems  who  were  most  on 
his  heart. 

In  1291  he  left  Paris,  where  he  had  been  lecturing, 
supporting  Christianity  and  attacking  Mohammedan 
philosophy,  and  went  to  Genoa  to  sail  for  Africa,  to 
*  *  experiment  whether  he,  himself, "  as  he  said,  "could 
not  persuade  some  of  them  by  conference  with  their 
wise  men  and  by  manifesting  to  them,  according  to 


34  RAYMOND   LULL 

the  divinely  given  method,  the  incarnation  of  the  Son 
of  God  and  the  Three  Persons  of  the  Blessed  Trinity 
in  the  Divine  Unity  of  the  Essence."  There  is  some- 
thing very  heroic  in  the  lonely  man  who  was  propos- 
ing to  go  out  without  friend  or  companion,  without 
support  or  society  to  meet  the  most  implacable  an- 
tagonism Christianity  has  ever  encountered.  A  ship 
was  in  the  harbour  ready  to  sail  and  passage  was  en- 
gaged and  Lull's  books  were  put  on  board,  when  as 
Lull  says,  he  was  '  *  overwhelmed  with  terror  at  the 
thought  of  what  might  befall  him  in  the  country 
whither  he  was  going.  The  idea  of  enduring  torture 
or  lifelong  imprisonment  presented  itself  with  such 
force  that  he  could  not  control  his  emotions."  His 
books  were  brought  back  and  the  ship  sailed  without 
him.  But  who  can  wonder  at  his  hesitancy?  As 
Dr.  Smith  says:  "No  such  enterprise  had  been  at- 
tempted in  the  history  of  the  Church.  This  was  no 
careless  Crusader,  cheered  by  martial  glory  or  worldly 
pleasure.  His  was  not  even  such  a  task  as  that  which 
had  called  forth  all  the  courage  of  the  men  who  first 
won  over  Goth  and  Frank,  Saxon  and  Slav.  Eay- 
mond  Lull,  refused  aid  and  sympathy  by  Europe, 
was  going  forth  alone  to  preach  Christ  to  a  people 
with  whom  apostasy  is  death,  who  had  made  Chris- 
tendom feel  their  prowess  for  centuries,  who  had 
steadily  advanced  and  rarely  retreated,  who  up  to 
this  hour  have  yielded  the  fewest  converts  to  the 
Gospel  and  have  attracted  the  fewest  missionaries  to 
attempt  their  evangelization,  even  in  British  India 
where  their  toleration  is  assured.  In  the  light  of  all 
subsequent  missions  to  the  Mohammedans,  Eaymond 
Lull's    first  hesitation   at  Genoa  is  a  small  thing, 


THE   CHRISTIAN   CRUSADER  35 

and   it    was   soon    purged    away  by  the   martyr's 
crown."  ' 

Lull  felt  keenly  the  humiliation  of  his  retreat.  He 
felt  that  he  had  opened  the  Gospel  and  his  missionary 
enterprise  to  reproach.  So  bitter  was  his  regret  that 
he  fell  into  a  fever.  In  this  fever,  he  learned  of  an- 
other ship  about  to  sail  and  insisted  upon  his  friends 
putting  him  on  board.  Convinced  that  he  could  not 
live,  they  brought  him  back  to  shore.  But  Eaymond 
Lull  was  not  a  man  whom  either  death  or  danger 
could  long  daunt,  and  when  a  third  vessel  was  ready 
to  sail,  he  insisted  again  upon  being  carried  on  board 
and  sailed  away  for  Tunis.  Once  on  board,  his  sick- 
ness left  him  and  he  rose  up  with  full  strength  for  his 
new  undertaking.  Upon  landing  at  Tunis  he  im- 
mediately acted  upon  his  principle  of  free  and  fear- 
less discussion  and  invited  the  Mohammedan  doctors 
to  a  conference,  in  which  he  proposed  that  they  should 
compare  the  evidences  on  each  side  and  that  then  all 
should  commit  themselves  to  whatever  should  be 
demonstrated  as  the  truth.  Lull  was  no  novice  in 
argument  upon  the  character  of  Islam  and  he  went 
straight  to  the  core  of  the  question  of  comparative 
worth  between  Christianity  and  Islam  in  presenting 
as  the  two  weak  points  of  the  Mohammedan  concep- 
tion of  God  a  lack  of  love  in  His  being  and  a  lack 
of  harmony  in  His  attributes.  "Every  wise  man," 
— so  Maclear  summarizes  his  argument,  which  Lull 
gives  in  his  own  writings, — ''must  acknowledge  that 
to  be  the  true  religion,  which  ascribed  the  greatest 
perfection  to  the  Supreme  Being,  and  not  only  con- 
veyed the  worthiest  conception  of  all  His  attributes, 
1  Smith,  "  Short  History  of  Christian  Missions,"  p.  106. 


36  RAYMOND   LULL 

His  goodness,  power,  wisdom  and  glory,  but  demon- 
strated tlie  harmony  and  equality  existing  between 
them.  Now  their  religion  was  defective  in  acknowl- 
edging only  two  active  principles  in  the  Deity,  His  will 
and  His  wisdom,  while  it  left  His  goodness  and  great- 
ness inoperative  as  though  they  were  indolent  quali- 
ties and  not  called  forth  into  active  exercise.  But  the 
Christian  faith  could  not  be  charged  with  this  defect. 
In  its  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  it  conveys  the  highest 
conception  of  the  Deity,  as  the  Father,  the  Son  and 
the  Holy  Spirit  in  one  simple  essence  and  nature.  In 
the  Incarnation  of  the  Son  it  evinces  the  harmony 
that  exists  between  God's  goodness  and  His  greatness  ; 
and  in  the  person  of  Christ  displays  the  true  union  of 
the  Creator  and  the  creature  ;  while  in  His  Passion 
which  He  underwent  out  of  His  great  love  for  man, 
it  sets  forth  the  divine  harmony  of  infinite  goodness 
and  condescension,  even  the  condescension  of  Him 
Who  for  us  men  and  our  salvation  and  restitution  to 
our  primeval  state  of  perfection,  underwent  those 
sufferings  and  lived  and  died  for  man."  ^ 

Such  preaching  could  only  secure  the  condemnation 
of  the  preacher,  not  the  acceptance  of  his  message. 
There  was  no  openness  of  mind  to  conviction  in  the 
Mohammedan  doctors.  They  had  hoped  to  silence 
Lull  easily.  They  were  not  willing  to  be  persuaded 
or  outreasoned,  and  Lull  was  cast  into  prison  to  await 
deportation,  one  of  the  Moslems  commending  the  de- 
votion of  the  missionary  and  securing  a  sentence  of 
deportation  rather  than  death.  He  escaped  from  the 
ship,  however,  and  lay  in  hiding  for  three  months, 

1  Maclear,  "History  of  Chriatian  Lliaaions  in  the  Middle  Ages," 
p.  362  f. 


THE   CHRISTIAN   CRUSADER  37 

preaching  quietly  and  composing  a  new  scientific 
work.  But  finding  any  further  public  discussion 
impossible,  he  returned  to  Naples  where  he  lectured 
and  taught  for  several  years  and  thence  went  to  Rome 
and  back  to  Majorca.  But  the  regions  beyond  were 
still  on  his  heart, — the  people  to  whom  Christ  had 
not  been  preached,  and  he  soon  pressed  out  upon  an- 
other itineration,  going  to  Cyprus  and  on  to  the  Ar- 
menians in  Cilicia. 

Cast  out  of  one  city  in  Africa,  however,  he  refused 
to  believe  that  Africa  was  closed  and  in  1307,  at  the 
age  of  seventy-one,  he  crossed  over  to  Bugia.  There 
were  Christians  in  the  city,  but  there  was  no  Chris- 
tian propagandism  and  the  spirit  of  Islam  was  ortho- 
dox and  intolerant.  The  old  code  of  Omar  was  as 
far  as  possible  in  force.  But  all  this  could  not  stifle 
the  zeal  of  the  old  missionary  and  he  went  straight  to 
the  market-place  and  preached  Christ.  The  mob 
would  have  killed  him  but  the  Mohammedan  doctors 
rescued  him  and  put  him  in  prison.  When  the  chief 
Mullah  expostulated  with  him  on  the  folly  of  his  con- 
duct, he  replied,  "Death  has  no  terrors  whatever  for 
a  sincere  servant  of  Christ  who  is  labouring  to  bring 
souls  to  a  knowledge  of  the  truth."  In  prison  he 
was  tempted  with  sensual  offers  which  the  old  man, 
who  had  forty  years  before  left  sin  for  Christ,  treated 
with  scorn,  and  he  spent  his  time  writing  another 
book  in  defense  of  Christianity  against  Islam.  He 
was  soon  deported,  this  time  without  opportunity  to 
escape.  On  his  way  back  to  Europe,  the  ship  was 
wrecked  off  Pisa,  but  Lull  was  rescued  and  came  on 
to  Genoa  and  Paris. 

Now  at  last  surely  the  aged  warrior  had  earned  rest 


^.^y 


*jc 


7G0S2 


38  RAYMOND  LULL 

and  might  justly  have  settled  down  into  some  quiet 
professorship  or  in  some  peaceful  monastery  for  his 
remaining  days.  But  this  was  not  the  spirit  of  Lull. 
*'  As  a  hungry  man  makes  despatch  and  takes  large 
morsels  on  account  of  his  great  hunger,  so  Thy  serv- 
ant feels  a  great  desire  to  die  that  he  may  glorify 
Thee."  This  was  his  word  to  God.  "He  hurries 
day  and  night  to  complete  his  work  in  order  that  he 
may  give  up  his  blood  and  his  tears  to  be  shed  for 
Thee."  And  in  "Contemplation,"  he  wrote:  "As 
the  needle  naturally  turns  to  the  north  when  it  is 
touched  by  the  magnet,  so  it  is  fitting,  O  Lord,  that 
Thy  servant  should  turn  to  love  and  praise  and  serve 
Thee  :  seeing  that  out  of  love  to  him  Thou  wast  will- 
ing to  endure  such  previous  pangs  and  sufferings." 
And  again,  "  Men  are  wont  to  die,  O  Lord,  from  old 
age,  the  failure  of  natural  warmth  and  excess  of  cold : 
but  thus  if  it  be  Thy  will,  Thy  servant  would  not 
wish  to  die  ;  he  would  prefer  to  die  in  the  glow  of 
love,  even  as  Thou  wast  willing  to  die  for  him." 
The  hunger  for  martyrdom  grew  keen  in  Lull's  heart. 
He  could  have  but  a  few  years  for  work  j  why  not 
spend  them  richly  in  one  more  effort  to  reach  the 
Moslem  and  then  die  gloriously  in  the  noble  army  of 
the  martyrs  ? 

Accordingly,  Lull  sailed  once  more  for  Africa  in 
1314,  in  the  seventy-eighth  year  of  his  age  and  spent 
a  year  in  Bugia  in  seclusion,  working  quietly, 
strengthening  the  little  band  of  converts,  gathered  as 
a  result  of  his  previous  visit  to  the  city.  To  these 
and  to  all  who  would  come,  he  preached  love  in  love  : 
the  love  of  his  own  heart  pleading  with  men  the  love 
of  the  heart  of  God.     This  was  the  supreme  power  of 


THE   CHRISTIAN   CRUSADER  39 

his  own  faith,  a  noble  realization  of  the  love  of  God 
in  Christ.  "  I  have  sought  Thee  on  the  Crucifix,"  he 
writes,  "and  my  bodily  eyes  could  not  find  Thee 
there.  I  have  sought  Thee  with  the  eyes  of  my  soul, 
and  as  soon  as  I  found  Thee,  my  heart  grew  warmer 
with  the  glow  of  Thy  love,  and  my  eyes  began  to 
shed  tears,  and  my  mouth  to  praise  Thee."  And 
this  was  his  supreme  argument  with  Moslems.  ' '  If 
Moslems,"  he  urged,  "  according  to  their  law,  afdrm 
that  God  loved  man  because  He  created  him,  en- 
dowed him  with  noble  faculties,  and  pours  His  bene- 
fits upon  him,  then  the  Christians,  according  to  their 
law,  affirm  the  same.  But  inasmuch  as  the  Chris- 
tians believe  more  than  this  and  affirm  that  God  so 
loved  man  that  He  was  willing  to  become  man,  to  en- 
dure poverty,  ignominy,  torture  and  death  for  his 
sake,  which  the  Jews  and  Saracens  do  not  teach  con- 
cerning Him  ;  therefore  is  the  religion  of  the  Chris- 
tian which  thus  reveals  a  Love  beyond  all  other  love 
superior  to  that  of  those  which  reveals  it  only  in  an 
inferior  degree." 

For  a  time.  Lull  was  able  to  content  himself  with 
the  private  preaching  of  Christ  as  the  divine  love  and 
the  evidence  of  the  love  of  God  ;  but  after  a  while  he 
wearied  of  the  seclusion  and  the  woe  of  St.  Paul, 
which  had  filled  his  soul  for  half  a  century,  grew  too 
burdensome.  So  he  came  forth  from  his  retirement 
and  openly  proclaimed  Christ  to  the  people  in  the 
public  market.  As  he  called  upon  the  people  to  re- 
nounce Mohammed  and  to  follow  Christ,  he  received 
the  crown  for  which  he  had  longed.  The  infuriated 
crowd  stoned  him  to  death  on  June  30,  1315,  and  he 
fell  asleep.     The  spirit  of  the  good  soldier  of  Thomas 


40  RAYMOND  LULL 

Fuller  had  always  been  in  him.  *'  The  good  soldier 
grudgeth  not  to  get  a  probability  of  victory  by  the 
certainty  of  his  own  death  and  fleeth  from  nothing  so 
much  as  from  the  mention  of  fleeing  ;  and  though  the 
world  call  him  a  madman,  our  soldier  knoweth  that 
he  shall  possess  the  reward  of  his  valour  with  God  in 
heaven,  and  making  the  world  his  executor  leave  to  it 
the  rich  inheritance  of  his  memory."  So  the  old 
warrior  and  saint  died  on  the  threshold  of  his 
eightieth  year,  and  the  world  has  waited  in  vain  for 
a  missionary  to  the  Mohammedans  who  could  ap- 
proach him  in  ability,  in  energy,  in  fearlessness,  in 
clean  discernment  of  the  issues  involved,  in  power  of 
argument,  in  passion  of  love. 

Eaymond  Lull  was  a  Protestant  before  the  Eefor- 
mation.  He  was  not  a  Protestant  in  the  sense  of 
separation  from  or  opposition  to  the  Church  of  Eome, 
or  to  the  popes  of  Eome.  That  Church  was  his 
Church  and  though  he  knew  well  the  character  of 
some  of  the  popes  of  his  day,  and  must  have  been 
made  sick  by  their  irreligion  and  their  blindness  to 
the  essential  character  of  Christianity  as  a  missionary 
power,  he  had  other  things  to  do  than  to  reform  the 
Church  or  failing,  to  separate  from  it.  The  time  had 
not  come  for  the  Eeformation  and  probably  the 
thought  of  it  did  not  occupy  Lull's  mind.  But  he 
was  a  Protestant  in  the  character  of  his  religious  doc- 
trine, retaining  still  the  personal  passionate  devotion 
to  Christ  which  has  been  too  often  sacrificed  in  the 
interest  of  purity  of  theological  opinion,  and  which  was 
the  noble  adornment  of  the  best  mediaeval  piety. 
Speaking  of  Lull's  conversion,  Mr.  Noble  says : 
"This  new  birth,  be  it  noted,  sprang  from  a  passion 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CRUSADER  4I 

for  Jesus.  Lull's  faith  was  not  sacramental,  but  per- 
sonal and  vital,  more  Catholic  than  Eoman."  Per- 
haps that  is  the  better  word.  He  was  not  Protestant 
or  Eoman,  but  simply  a  Catholic  Christian,  but  a 
Catholic  Christian  rather  than  a  Catholic  church- 
man. It  was  Christ  not  Church  with  him.  He 
would  have  thrown  away  his  time  and  life  if  he  had 
gone  to  Islam  with  a  church  religion.  Those  rigid 
Monotheists  and  individualists  would  have  been 
totally  untouched  by  a  doctrine  of  sacrament  and  or- 
ganization, which  submerged  the  sense  of  individual 
duty  and  responsibility  and  obscured  the  solemn, 
central  truth  of  religion — the  soul  and  God  ;  God  and 
the  soul.  The  right  religious  attitude  is  the  product 
of  psychology,  as  much  as  of  theology  and  ecclesiology 
and  it  is  hard  to  set  right  limits  to  either  one.  But 
it  may  be  believed  that  no  character  can  better  serve 
than  Eaymond  Lull's  to  indicate  to  us  the  right 
balance  of  views  and  sympathies.  Churchmen  and 
Christ-men,  historical  and  dogmatic  theologians,  and 
practical  Christian  missionaries,  mystics  and  devo- 
tionalists — all  those  contradictory  and  discordant 
types  of  Christian  character  and  opinion  which  fill 
our  world  to-day  find  a  common  meeting  place  in  the 
great  missionary  of  the  thirteenth  century. 

The  attitude  of  the  Eoman  Catholic  Church  to  the 
memory  of  Lull  is  confirmatory  of  the  view  that  he 
was  more  Catholic  than  the  Church.  His  works  were 
condemned  by  the  Inquisition,  which  the  Council  of 
Toulouse  had  created  in  1229  to  punish  a  namesake 
of  his,  and  which  was  introduced  into  Spain  163 
years  after  Lull's  death  to  deal  after  the  fashion  of 
the  Inquisition   with  the  Mohammedans  and  Jews 


42  RAYMOND   LULL 

whom  Lull  had  lived  and  died  to  win  by  love.  The 
Jesuits  have  always  been  hostile  to  his  memory,  and 
the  Church  has  hesitated  whether  to  regard  him  as  a 
heretic  or  a  saint.  He  has  never  been  canonized  and 
others  who  have  been  unworthy  to  unloose  his  shoes 
have  usurped  the  devotion  of  the  Church.  In  his  old 
home,  however,  his  memory  lives,  and  Dr.  Zwemer 
quotes  a  letter  from  the  present  bishop  of  Majorca  in 
which  he  speaks  of  him  as  "an  extraordinary  man 
with  apostolic  virtues  and  worthy  of  all  admiration." 
If  Lull  had  not  been  so  universal  a  character,  he 
might  have  stood  better  chance  of  canonization.  But 
his  interests  were  too  wide  and  were  sure  to  conflict 
at  some  point  with  established  prejudices.  His  atti- 
tude towards  the  rudimentary  science  of  his  day  was 
enough  in  itself  to  lay  him  open  to  suspicion.  Arnold 
de  Villeneuve,  "the  alchemist  and  pious  nobleman," 
was  one  of  his  friends  and  Arnold  incurred  the  cen- 
sure of  the  Church  for  holding  that  "  medicine  and 
charity  were  more  pleasing  to  God  than  religious 
services,"  and  teaching  that  "the  monks  had  cor- 
rupted the  doctrine  of  Christ  and  that  saying  masses 
was  useless  ;  and  that  the  papacy  is  a  work  of  man." 
Lull,  himself,  was  a  prolific  writer  and  an  advanced 
thinker  upon  natural  philosophy.  "One  of  Lull's 
biographers  states  that  the  books  written  by  Lull 
numbered  4,000.  In  the  first  published  edition  of  his 
works  (1721)  282  titles  are  given  ;  yet  only  forty-five 
of  these  when  printed  took  up  ten  large  folio  vol- 
umes. To  understand  something  of  the  scope  and 
ambition  of  this  prodigious  intellect,"  as  Dr.  Zwemer 
says,  "we  must  read  the  partial  list  of  his  books 
given  in  the  bibliography.     .     .     .     Lull  was  a  phi- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CRUSADER  43 

loaopher,  a  poet,  a  novelist,  a  writer  of  proverbs,  a 
keen  logician,  a  deep  theologian  and  a  fiery  contro- 
versialist. There  was  not  a  science  cultivated  in  his 
age  but  he  added  to  it.  The  critical  historian,  Win- 
sor,  states  that  in  1295  Lull  wrote  a  handbook  on 
navigation  which  was  not  superseded  by  a  better  un- 
til after  Columbus.  Dr.  George  Smith  credits  Lull 
with  the  independent  invention  of  the  mariner's  com- 
pass, and  not  without  reason,  for  we  find  frequent 
reference  to  the  magnetic  needle  in  his  devotional 
books.  He  wrote  a  treatise  on  '  the  weight  of  the 
elements,'  and  their  shape  ;  on  the  sense  of  smell  ;  on 
astronomy,  astrology,  arithmetic  and  geometry.  One 
of  his  books  is  entitled,  '  On  the  squaring  and  trian- 
gulation  of  the  circle.'  In  mediaeval  medicine,  juris- 
prudence and  metaphysics,  he  was  equally  at  home. 
His  seven  volumes  on  medicine  include  one  book  on 
the  use  of  the  mind  in  curing  the  sick  and  another 
on  the  effect  of  climate  on  diseases.  He  was  a  dog- 
matic theologian  and  wrote  sixty-three  volumes  of 
theological  discussion. ' ' 

And  his  writings  did  not  dry  out  his  spirit.  His 
controversial  books,  even  where  he  is  arguing  against 
Mohammedanism,  have  the  irenic  tenderness.  He 
would  win  by  love.  Thus  he  concluded  one  book  : 
"  O  Lord,  my  help  !  till  this  work  is  completed  Thy 
servant  cannot  go  to  the  land  of  the  Saracens  to 
glorify  Thy  glorious  Name,  for  I  am  so  occupied  with 
this  book  which  I  undertake  for  Thine  honour  that  I 
can  think  of  nothing  else.  For  this  reason,  I  be- 
seech Thee  for  that  grace,  that  Thou  wouldst  stand 
by  me  that  I  may  soon  finish  it  and  speedily  depart 
to  die  the  death  of  a  martyr  out  of  love  to  Thee,  if  it 


44  RAYMOND   LULL 

shall  please  Thee  to  coant  me  worthy  of  it."  An- 
other book  on  the  logic  of  Christianity  he  closed 
thus:  "Let  Christians  consumed  with  burning  love 
for  the  cause  of  faith  only  consider  that  since  nothing 
has  power  to  withstand  truth,  they  can  by  God's  help 
and  His  might  bring  infidels  back  to  the  faith ;  so 
that  the  precious  name  of  Jesus,  which  in  most 
regions  is  still  unknown  to  most  men,  may  be  pro- 
claimed and  adored." 

It  is  possible  that,  apart  from  the  evident  love  of 
Christ  which  possessed  Lull  and  the  admiration  of 
men  for  his  zeal  in  the  hopeless  cause  of  converting 
the  Saracens,  as  the  world  regarded  it,  Lull  may  have 
been  left  free  for  his  work  because  he  was  a  layman 
and  a  little  less  subject  accordingly  to  sharp  eccle- 
siastical surveillance.  His  call  to  follow  Christ  and 
to  preach  to  the  heathen,  the  Jew  and  the  Moham- 
medan did  not  appear  to  Lull  to  be  a  call  to  the 
priesthood.  He  sought  no  honour  and  he  felt  the 
need  of  no  ecclesiastical  consecration,  of  no  historic 
credentials.  Had  he  not  seen  Christ?  Did  he  not 
have  a  message?  "Were  there  not  millions  of  un- 
reached souls,  whom  the  attested  clergy  of  his  time 
were  leaving  to  their  darkness  and  their  doom  ?  We 
may  think  of  Lull  in  this  regard  as  reviving  the 
ideals  of  the  first  Christian  centnry,  or  as  anticipat- 
ing the  ideals  of  the  twentieth.  In  other  words, 
though  set  in  a  great  historic  institution,  all  that 
Lull  felt  was  essential  was  the  spiritual.  Church 
order  is  right  and  necessary,  but  what  is  spiritually 
real,  accredited  by  the  immediate  anointing  of  the 
living  God,  does  not  need  ecclesiastical  sanction.  It 
bears  on  its  face  the  irrefutable  evidence  of  life  and 


THE   CHRISTIAN   CRUSADER  45 

reality.  At  tlie  same  time,  Lull  was  not  a  heedless 
independent.  For  one  thing,  he  -was  born  in  the 
only  Christian  institution  there  was,  and  to  go  apart 
from  the  Church  would  have  been,  unless  he  had 
gone  to  the  Waldensians  or  the  Albigenses,  to  go  out 
of  the  company  of  Christian  people.  Lull  felt  also 
the  great  desirability  of  organized  missions  under 
proper  Church  responsibility.  He  strove  again  and 
again  to  have  his  mission  to  the  Moslems  taken  up 
by  the  Church,  but  in  vain.  "What  his  life  stands 
for  is  the  desirability  of  the  union  between  free  indi- 
vidual movement, — men  seeing  their  own  visions  and 
following  their  own  gleams, — and  such  corporate 
Church  responsibility  as  shall  leave  no  man  to  fight 
the  battle  single-handed,  and  shall  provide  a  larger 
generalship  than  one  mind  can  furnish,  and  shall 
have  another  ready  to  catch  the  shield  and  sword  as 
they  drop  from  the  hand  of  the  falling  warrior  and 
renew  the  battle  as  an  eternal  strife  till  the  victory 
is  won. 

It  was  probably  advantageous  that  Lull  lacked  the 
technical  theological  education  of  his  day.  It  might 
have  stifled  the  freedom  of  his  mind.  It  certainly 
would  have  tended  to  chill  the  zeal  of  his  missionary 
spirit,  which  the  conventional  attitude  of  his  time 
deemed  madness.  After  all  has  been  said  that  can 
be  said  of  the  general  liberalizing  influence  of  edu- 
cation and  of  the  universities  as  the  centres  of  re- 
forming tendencies  in  all  ages,  it  yet  remains  true 
that  the  school  has  its  peril  of  narrowness,  of  arti- 
ficiality, of  a  sort  of  procrastination,  that  plays 
with  the  forms  of  the  last  generation's  thought, 
when  a    new   generation  is   already  on  the  stage ; 


46  RAYMOND  LULL 

or  that  invents  new  forms  so  lightly  that  one 
wonders  whether  the  inventors  realize  that  all  such 
changes  cost  blood  and  that  that  is  why  they  are 
neither  to  be  resisted  when  they  come  nor  forced 
with  light-heartedness  to  come  prematurely.  The 
theological  discipline  of  his  day  would  have  been 
better  than  the  school  of  sensuality  in  which  he  grew 
up,  but  the  latter  left  him  with  a  mind  open  to  new 
sympathies,  to  large  services,  to  fresh  conceptions. 
Mediaeval  scholasticism  would  have  operated  severely 
against  all  such.  It  is  enough  to  urge  that  the  su- 
preme thing  in  missionary  work  in  all  ages  is  the 
possession  of  a  life,  of  the  love  divine  that  is  life  di- 
vine and  the  full  preparation  of  such  life  for  contact 
in  the  most  intricate  and  unprejudiced  way  with  other 
life.  No  school  can  give  the  life  and  while  the  pre- 
sumption always  is  that  the  school  is  the  best  place 
for  preparation.  Lull  shows  that  it  is  not  always  so 
and  that  sometimes  it  is  better  to  "buy  a  Saracen " 
and  get  ready  in  exceptional  ways.  At  any  rate, 
when  a  man  appears  who  has  been  so  made  ready,  in- 
stead of  fearing  him  because  of  his  singularity,  our 
plans  should  be  so  flexible  as  to  open  a  place  at  once 
for  him, — for  any  one  who  has  the  life  and  would 
give  it. 

And  Eaymond  Lull  had  it.  Somerville,  in  *'St. 
Paul's  Conception  of  Christ,"  points  out  that  it  was 
"in  the  consciousness  of  what  the  glorified  Christ 
was  to  Paul  in  his  personal  life,  that  we  are  to  look 
for  the  genesis  of  his  theology."  It  was  in  his  inner 
experience  of  the  glorified  Christ  that  we  are  to  look 
for  the  secret  and  source  of  Eaymond  Lull's  doctrine 
and  life,  what  he  thought,  what  he  was,  what  he  suf- 


THE   CHRISTIAN   CRUSADER  47 

fered.  Aud  this  must  be  true  of  all  true  missionaries. 
They  do  not  go  out  to  Asia  and  to  Africa  to  say, 
"This  is  the  doctrine  of  the  Christian  Church "  ;  or, 
"Your  science  is  bad.  Look  through  this  micro- 
scope and  see  for  yourselves  and  abandon  such 
error''  ;  or,  "Compare  your  condition  with  that  of 
America  and  see  how  much  more  socially  beneficial 
Christianity  is  than  Hinduism  or  Confucianism  or 
Islam."  Doubtless,  all  this  has  its  place  :  the  argu- 
ment from  the  historic  evidences  of  Christianity  ;  the 
argument  from  the  coherence  of  Christianity  with  the 
facts  of  the  universe ;  the  argument  from  fruits. 
But  it  is  also  all  secondary.  The  primary  thing  is 
personal  testimony  :  ' '  This  I  have  felt.  This  He 
has  done  for  me.  I  preach  Whom  I  know,  that 
which  was  from  the  beginning ;  that  which  I  have 
heard,  that  which  I  have  seen  with  my  eyes  ;  that 
which  I  have  looked  upon  aud  my  hands  have 
handled,  concerning  the  AYord  of  Life  (and  the 
Life  was  manifested,  and  I  have  seen  and  bear 
witness,  and  declare  unto  you  the  life,  the  eternal 
life,  which  was  with  the  Father  and  was  mani- 
fested unto  me),  that  which  I  have  seen  and  heard 
declare  I  unto  you  also,  that  ye  also  may  have  fel- 
lowship with  me ;  yea,  and  my  fellowship  is  with 
the  Father  aud  with  His  Son  Jesus  Christ."  The 
man  who  cannot  say  this  may  be  able  to  change  the 
opinions  of  those  to  whom  he  has  gone,  to  improve 
their  social  condition,  to  free  them  from  many  foolish 
errors  and  enslaving  superstitions,  but  after  all  this, 
the  one  thing  which  if  done  would  of  itself  have  at- 
tended to  these  things  and  a  thousand  others  may 
be  still   unaccomplished,    namely,   the  gift  of  life. 


48  RAYMOND   LULL 

The  man  who  would  do  Paul's  work  or  Lull's  must 
be  able  to  preach  a  living  Christ,  tested  in  experience, 
saved  from  all  pantheistic  error  by  the  Incarnation 
and  the  roots  thus  sunk  in  history,  by  the  Resurrec- 
tion and  the  personality  thus  preserved  in  God  above, 
but  a  Christ  here  and  known,  lived  and  ready  to  be 
given  by  life  to  death,  that  death  may  become  life. 

It  would  be  easy  to  draw  other  parallels  than  this 
between  Paul  and  Lull, — their  conversions,  their  sub- 
sequent times  of  separation,  their  visions,  their  untir- 
ing toil,  their  passion  for  Christ,  their  sufferings  and 
shipwrecks,  their  intellectual  activity  and  power, 
their  martyrdoms,  the  rule  of  Christ  sui^reme  even 
in  death,  supreme  also  in  life,  its  thought,  its  pur- 
pose, its  tastes,  its  use,  its  friends,  its  sacrifices.  But 
the  essence  of  all  such  comparisons  is  this — the  real 
essence  of  all  true  missionary  character,  namely,  the 
possession  by  the  life  of  Christ  as  life  and  the  ability 
thus  to  give  not  a  new  doctrine  only,  not  a  new 
truth  to  men,  but  a  new  life.  The  work  of  missions 
is  just  this, — the  going  out  of  the  Church  over  the 
world  ;  of  a  body  of  men  and  women  knowing  Christ, 
and  therefore  having  life  in  themselves,  their  quiet 
residence  among  the  dead  peoples  and  the  resurrec- 
tion from  among  these  peoples  of  first  one,  then  a 
few,  then  more  and  more,  who  feel  the  life  and  re- 
ceive it  and  live. 

It  will  be  worth  while  in  closing  to  notice  a  few 
characteristics  of  Lull  in  which  the  great  life  in  him 
expressed  itself. 

1.  He  sought  in  every  way  to  fit  himself  for  con- 
tact with  men  so  that  he  might  reach  them  in  the 
deepest  intricacies  of  their  life,  and  be  able  there  to 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CRUSADER  49 

plant  the  seed  of  the  divine  life  which  he  bore. 
Therefore,  he  learned  Arabic,  became  a  master  of 
the  Moslem  philosophy,  studied  geography  and  the 
heart  of  man.  And  therefore,  also,  he  became  a  stu- 
dent of  comparative  religion,  as  we  would  call  him 
to-day.  There  was  a  great  difference  between  his 
view,  however,  and  that  of  a  large  school  of  modern 
students  of  comparative  religion.  He  did  not  study 
other  religions  with  the  purpose  of  providing  from 
them  ideals  which  Christianity  was  supposed  to  lack. 
Nor  did  he  propose  to  reduce  out  of  all  religions  a 
common  fund  of  general  principles  more  or  less  to  be 
found  in  all  and  regard  this  as  the  ultimate  religion. 
He  studied  other  religions  to  find  out  how  better  to 
reach  the  hearts  of  their  followers  with  the  Gospel, 
itself  perfect  and  complete,  lacking  nothing,  needing 
nothing  from  any  other  doctrine.  With  him,  there 
was  a  difference  between  Christianity  and  other  relig- 
ions not  in  degree  only,  but  in  kind.  It  possesses  all 
that  they  lack  which  is  desirable.  It  lacks  all  that 
they  possess  which  is  unworthy.  It  alone  satisfies. 
It  alone  is  life.  They  are  systems  of  society  or  poli- 
tics ;  religions  of  books,  methods,  organizations.  It 
and  it  alone  is  life,  personal  life.  Lull  studied  other 
religions  not  to  discover  what  they  have  to  give  to 
Christianity,  for  they  have  nothing,  but  to  find  how 
best  he  might  give  to  those  who  follow  them  the  true 
life  which  is  life,  and  which  no  man  shall  ever  find 
until  he  finds  it  in  Christ. 

2.  Believing  in  life,  he  believed  in  the  movement 
of  life.  The  great  dream  of  his  last  years  was  a 
mighty  missionary  crusade.  ''  The  Saracens  write 
books  for  the  destruction  of  Christianity,"  he  writes. 


50  RAYMOND   LULL 

"  I,  myself,  have  seen  such  when  I  was  in  prison. 
.  .  .  For  one  Saracen  who  becomes  a  Christian, 
ten  Christians  and  more  become  Mohammedans.  It 
becomes  those  in  power  to  consider  what  will  be  the 
end  of  such  a  state  of  things.  God  will  not  be 
mocked."  And  one  of  his  proposals  was  a  union  of 
the  many  religious  orders  of  the  knighthood  for  a  new, 
a  spiritual  crusade.  He  tried  to  organize  a  Volun- 
teer Movement,  a  sort  of  laymen's  missionary  crusade, 
seven  centuries  before  at  last  anything  like  it  came. 
But  this  is  the  way  with  living  men.  Life  leaps  out 
in  unlimited  purposes.  What  we  call  conservatism 
is  often  only  life  at  low  ebb,  or  life  overlaid  with 
death.  When  the  Christ,  Who  laid  out  for  Himself 
a  universal  project  and  calmly  prepared  for  a 
campaign  to  last  ages,  and  confidently  committed 
His  project  at  the  outset  to  a  dozen  fishermen  and 
countryfolk  ;  Who  now  is  planning  with  a  patience 
that  is  never  ruffled  and  a  wisdom  that  is  never  at 
fault  for  the  victory  which  is  more  inevitable  than 
time, — when  He  lives  in  the  soul  of  a  man,  all  great 
visions  will  come  to  birth  and  with  them  the  resistless 
impulse  of  mighty  undertakings.  There  is  life  in  the 
loom  at  which  He  weaves.     '*  Eoom  for  it,  room  !  " 

3.  Because  the  true  life  was  in  him,  Eaymond 
Lull  felt  and  displayed  the  true  missionary  spirit. 
He  would  win  men  personally.  He  rose  right  up 
over  the  dominant  notion  of  his  day,  of  conversion  by 
authority.  The  fires  of  the  Inquisition  were  just  be- 
ginning to  burn  and  the  dungeons  of  that  thought  of 
hell  to  echo  with  the  wail  of  old  man  and  little  child. 
The  Crusader  had  rejoiced  over  the  carnage  of  battle 
with  Islam.     But  Lull  taught  the  method   of  the 


THE   CHRISTIAN   CRUSADER  5I 

Saviour.  He  closes  one  of  his  books  with  this 
prayer  :  * '  Lord  of  heaven,  Father  of  all  times,  when 
Thou  didst  send  Thy  Sou  to  take  upon  Him  human 
nature.  He  and  His  disciples  lived  in  outward  peace 
with  Jews,  Pharisees  and  other  men  ;  for  never  by 
outward  violence  did  they  capture  or  slay  any  of  the 
unbelievers  or  of  those  who  persecuted  them.  Of 
this  outward  peace,  they  availed  themselves  to  bring 
the  erring  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth  and  to  a 
communion  of  spirit  with  themselves.  And  so  after 
Thy  example  should  Christians  conduct  themselves 
towards  Moslems  ;  but  since  that  ardour  of  devotion, 
which  glowed  in  Apostles  and  holy  men  of  old,  no 
longer  inspires  us,  love  and  devotion  through  almost 
all  the  world  have  grown  cold,  and  therefore  do 
Christians  expend  their  efforts  far  more  in  the  out- 
ward than  in  the  spiritual  conflict."  No  sword  was 
in  Lull's  hand,  nor  any  hate  in  his  heart.  The  life 
and  love  of  Christ  were  there. 

4.  The  love  of  Christ,  because  the  life  of  Christ. 
And  what  a  passionate  love  it  was  !  It  stopped  at 
nothing.  It  counted  no  cost.  It  dreamed  of  Christ 
at  night.  It  saw  Him  in  the  joys  and  not  less  in  the 
griefs  of  life.  It  filled  him  in  all  the  channels  of  his 
being.  He  wanted  nothing  but  to  love  Christ  more. 
"O  divine  love,"  wrote  Livingstone  in  his  journal, 
"I  have  not  loved  Thee  deeply,  tenderly  enough." 
As  Francis  had  adored  his  dear  Lord  and  bore  in  his 
body  His  marks,  Eaymond  Lull  loved  Him  and  bore 
in  his  life  evidences  as  real  of  the  indwelling  presence 
of  the  Saviour.  It  was  that  indwelling  life  that  led 
him  into  the  loving  purpose  of  bringing,  as  he  said, 
"by  love,  by  proclaiming  the  word  of  truth  rather 


52  RAYMOND   LULL 

tlian  by  force  of  arms,"  the  Saracens  into  "that 
kingdom  which  is  love  and  peace  and  joy  in  the 
Holy  Ghost."  "Crusade  had  succeeded  crusade, 
leaving  the  Saracens  stronger,  calling  out  in  the  Tui-k 
a  more  terrible  foe,  before  whom  Constantinople  was 
soon  to  fall,  and  distant  Vienna  to  tremble,  and 
plunging  Europe  and  the  Church  into  deeper  corrup- 
tion." That  was  the  result  of  the  method  of  hate 
and  conflict.  "  Eaymond  Lull  was  raised  up  as  if  to 
prove,  in  one  startling  case  to  which  the  eyes  of 
Christians  were  turned  for  many  a  day,  what  the 
crusades  might  have  become  and  might  have  done  for 
the  world,  had  they  fought  for  the  Cross  with  the 
weapons  of  Him  Whose  last  words  from  it  were  for- 
giveness and  peace. ' '  ^ 

5.  And  lastly,  can  we  hear  no  call  from  the  old 
martyr  sleeping  beneath  the  stones  at  Bugia  ?  Shall 
that  great  Mohammedan  world,  which  he  was  so  eager 
to  save  and  which  we  know  is  as  dear  to  Christ  as  our 
world  is  to  us  or  to  Him,  awaken  no  sympathy  in  our 
hearts  ?  The  obstacles  which  Lull  encountered  were 
tenfold  greater  than  ours.  He  went  on  hard  jour- 
neys where  we  can  travel  with  ease.  He  preached 
Christ  to  Moslem  people  in  Moslem  states.  Now  one- 
half  the  Moslem  people,  125,000,000,  are  under  Chris- 
tian rulers,  where  apostasy  is  not  treason  and  where 
Christ  is  not  crime.  He  was  alone.  Now  the 
Moslem  world  is  girt  with  missions,  and  here  and 
there  some  fearless  band  is  at  work  in  its  very  citadels. 
Then  the  great  system  was  intact,  save  for  some  minor 
schism.  Now  it  is  seamed  with  dissensions  and 
sapped  with  doubt.  That  the  enterprise  is  still 
1  Smith,  "  Short  History  of  Christian  Missions,"  p.  103. 


THE  CHRISTIAN   CRUSADER  53 

perilous  cannot  be  denied.  Bo  was  the  Incarnation. 
Christ  was  crucified  and  He  knew  He  would  be  cruci- 
fied before  He  came.  But  alike  its  peril  and  its 
necessity  constitute  our  duty.  For  thirteen  centuries, 
the  world  has  waited.  Even  Lull  failed  to  awaken 
the  Church.  "In  Persia,  one  thousand  years  after 
Islam,  the  first  missionary  came.  Arabia  waited 
twelve  centuries."  Every  other  Christian  enterprise 
has  won  its  friends  and  moved  on,  but  this  one  waits, 
its  heralds  calling  still,  voices  in  the  wilderness,  senti- 
nels before  the  dawn.  Even  the  Eoman  Church, 
which  fears  nothing, — disease,  leprosy,  martyrdom, 
— since  the  days  of  Lull  has  passed  Islam  by.  Will 
the  morning  never  break,  and  the  spirit  of  Lull  never 
come  to  life  again  in  men  who  will  take  up  the  work 
which  Lull  laid  down,  fearless  and  sure  and  steadfast 
in  the  faith  of  Lull's  great  word  :  ''He  who  loves  not, 
lives  not :  he  who  lives  by  the  Life  cannot  die"  ? 


LECTURE  II 

WILLIAM  CAREY,  THE  CHRISTIAN 
PIONEER     AND     HIS     PROBLEMS 


LECTURE  II 

WILLIAM  CAREY,  THE  CHRISTIAN 
PIONEER  AND  HIS  PROBLEMS 

THE  names  of  William  Carey  and  Alexander 
Duflf  are  bound  together  by  varied  associa- 
tions. Each  was  the  first  missionary  rep- 
resentative of  his  country  and  his  Church.  They 
laid  together  the  foundations  of  missions  and  mission- 
ary influence  in  India  and  in  the  same  part  of  India. 
They  established  certain  missionary  principles  at  the 
beginning  of  the  modern  missionary  enterprise.  Each 
left  his  influence  on  the  political  destiny  and  develop- 
ment of  the  Indian  government,  and  from  the  life  of 
each  flowed  streams  of  originating  influence  over  the 
countries  from  which  they  came  and  over  other  lands. 
Even  before  they  died,  men  discerned  the  true  great- 
ness of  their  lives  and  looking  back  now,  we  see  them 
overtopping  scores  of  governors  and  viceroys  and  tak- 
ing their  places,  not  only  beside  them, — Carey  beside 
Clive  as  the  spiritual  and  secular  founders,  and  Duff 
beside  Hastings  as  the  spiritual  and  secular  consoli- 
dators  of  the  Indian  Empire,  as  Dr.  George  Smith 
says,' — but  above  them,  by  reason  of  their  moral 
superiority  of  character  and  the  daring  and  originality 
of  their  schemes.  Work  is  great  or  small  in  propor- 
tion to  the  greatness  of  the  idea  it  embodies  and  the 
faithfulness  of  the  spirit  in  which  it  is  done.     In  this 

»  "  Life  of  William  Carey,"  p.  59. 
57 


58  WILLIAM  CAREY 

view,  no  viceroy  ranks  above  these  pioneers  of  mis- 
sions. 

Shortly  after  his  arrival  in  India,  Duff  went  to 
consult  Carey  regarding  his  educational  plans.  It 
was  only  three  years  before  Carey's  death  and  he  was 
then  "  a  little  yellow  old  man  in  a  white  jacket  who 
tottered  up  to  the  visitor  of  whom  he  had  already 
often  heard,  and  with  outstretched  hands  solemnly 
blessed  him."  ^  Only  one  other  incident  of  their 
intercourse  is  preserved  in  their  biographies.  It 
was  near  Carey's  end. 

"Among  those  who  visited  him  in  his  last  illness  was 
Alexander  Duff,  the  Scotch  missionary.  On  one  of  the 
last  occasions  on  which  he  saw  him — if  not  the  very  last — 
he  spent  some  time  talking  chiefly  about  Carey's  mission- 
ary life,  till  at  length  the  dying  man  whispered,  *  Pray,' 
Duff  knelt  down  and  prayed,  and  then  said  good-bye. 
As  he  passed  from  the  room,  he  thought  he  heard  a  feeble 
voice  pronouncing  his  name,  and  turning,  he  found  that 
he  was  recalled.  He  stepped  back,  accordingly,  and  this 
is  what  he  heard,  spoken  with  a  gracious  solemnity,  *  Mr. 
Duff,  you  have  been  speaking  about  Dr.  Carey ;  when  I 
am  gone,  say  nothing  about  Dr.  Carey — speak  about  Dr. 
Carey's  Saviour.'  Duff  went  away  rebuked  and  awed, 
with  a  lesson  in  his  heart  that  he  never  forgot. ' ' " 

This  was  the  spirit  in  which  Carey  had  always 
lived  and  worked.  Probably  he  did  not  compre- 
hend in  any  large  measure  the  magnitude  of  the  in- 
fluence   he    was    launching    in  India.     He  always 

1  Smith,  "  Life  of  Duff,"  Vol.  I,  p.  105  f. 
*  CulroBS,  "  William  Carey, "  quoted  in  Smith,  "Life  of  William 
Carey,"  p.  365. 


THE   CHRISTIAN   PIONEER  59 

disavowed  any  greatness  and  said  once  to  his  nephew 
Eustace,  ' '  Eustace,  if,  after  my  removal,  any  one 
should  think  it  worth  his  while  to  write  my  life,  I 
will  give  you  a  criterion  by  which  you  may  judge 
of  its  correctness.  If  he  gives  me  credit  for  being  a 
plodder  he  will  describe  me  justly.  Anything  be- 
yond this  will  be  too  muoh.  I  can  plod.  I  can  per- 
severe in  any  definite  pursuit.  To  this  I  owe  every- 
thing." Carey's  American  biographer  in  his  quaint 
life  of  the  missionary  justly  develops  Carey's  own 
estimate  : 

"  In  Dr.  Carey's  mind  and  habits  of  life,  there  was 
nothing  of  the  marvellous ;  no  great  and  original  tran- 
scendency of  intellect ;  no  enthusiasm  and  impetuosity  of 
feeling  ;  nothing  to  dazzle  or  surprise.  Whatever  of  use- 
fulness and  of  consequent  reputation  he  attained  to  was 
the  result  of  an  entire  and  patient  devotion  of  a  single 
heart  and  clear  intelligence  to  a  well-defined,  great,  and 
practicable  object ; — an  object  which  demanded  great 
labour,  but  which  presented  great  attraction,  and  ultimate 
success.  He  had  nothing  of  the  sentimental,  the  tasteful, 
the  speculative,  or  the  curious  in  his  mental  constitution. 
He  had,  therefore,  no  help  from  the  warmth  of  feeling,  or 
the  glow  of  spirits,  from  the  fervour  or  the  fire  which 
actuate  painters  and  poets,  and  by  which  even  some 
zealots  in  religion  and  morals  show  themselves  to  have  an 
existence.  To  this  want  of  excitement  may  be  traced 
many  of  those  upbraidings  of  himself  for  his  imagined  in- 
activity and  want  of  zeal.  He  was  often  heard  to  say, 
*  I  think  no  man  living  ever  felt  inertia  to  so  great  a  degree 
as  I  do.'  He  was  a  man  of  principle,  not  of  impulse."  * 
1  Belcher,  "William  Carey,"  p.  237 f. 


6o  WILLIAM   CAREY 

Thougli  it  may  be  that  Carey  was  only  a  plodder 
and  no  genius,  yet  at  least  lie  had  a  genius  for 
plodding,  and  the  history  of  the  missionary  enter- 
prise in  many  lands  has  shown  the  power  of  a  long 
tenacious  service.  If  a  good  man,  whatever  his 
intellectual  gifts,  will  stay  for  a  generation  in  one 
place  anywhere  in  the  world  and  work,  he  will  have 
an  abiding  result.  Human  influence  is  cumulative 
and  forty  years  of  steady  honest  toil  will  yield  far 
more  of  the  kind  of  fruitage  which  can  be  built  into 
life  and  institution  than  teii  years  of  erratic  brilliance. 
One  great  problem  of  the  missionary  work  is  how  to 
secure  such  continuous,  indefatigable  plodding  as 
Carey  gave  to  it. 

Of  Carey's  early  life,  it  is  difficult  to  say  whether 
it  chiefly  offered  a  field  for  the  triumphant  exercise 
of  inherited  qualities  of  industry  and  persistence,  or 
whether  it  was  the  difficulties  and  discouragements 
of  these  years  which  developed  the  qualities  required 
to  overcome  them.  On  the  one  hand,  there  assuredly 
was  the  latent  power  in  the  weaver' s  son.  The  family 
line  had  known  loftier  days.  ''  For  two  and  a  half 
centuries,  from  the  second  Richard  to  the  second 
Charles,  they  gave  statesmen  and  soldiers,  scholars 
and  bishops,  to  the  service  of  their  country."  The 
father  and  grandfather  of  William  Carey  had  been 
the  schoolmasters  and  parish  clerks  of  the  village, 
and  the  boy  was  given  the  ordinary  education  of  the 
boys  of  his  time  and  condition.  He  grew  up  in 
poverty  and  for  years  knew  nothing  else.  While 
engaged  in  the  trade  of  shoemaker,  which  provided 
his  support  as  a  preacher,  his  employer  died.  Mr. 
Carey  took   over   his  stock  and  business  and  mar- 


THE   CHRISTIAN   PIONEER  6l 

ried  his   sister   before    he   had  reached  the  age  of 
twenty. 

The  condition  of  Carey's  early  life  and  training 
comprised  three  elements  of  missionary  equipment, 
two  advantageous  and  one  unsatisfactory.  (1)  He 
had  good  stuff  in  him.  No  training  will  create  what 
does  not  exist  in  capacity.  The  missionary  work  is 
seeking  for  men  and  women  who  have  in  them, 
thanks  to  the  past,  the  latent  power  to  do  things. 
(2)  The  discipline  of  poverty  is  a  good  discipline  to 
the  man  on  whom  its  blessings  are  not  lost.  There 
are  those  whom  poverty  simply  prepares  for  self- 
indulgence  and  presumption  when  their  circumstances 
change  and  who  are  made  exacting  and  not  adaptive 
by  it.  A  wise  and  experienced  missionary  woman  in 
one  of  our  oldest  missions  remarked  that  she  had  ob- 
served that  it  was  often  the  missionaries  who  had  had 
least  in  their  home  lives  who  demanded  most  on  the 
mission  field,  while  those  who  had  known  the  greatest 
comfort  and  luxury  were  the  most  cheerful  in  dep- 
rivation and  sacrifice.  Perhaps  only  those  of  the 
rich  or  well-to-do  who  had  such  a  spirit  of  self-denial 
would  venture  to  the  mission  field  and  some  of  other 
classes  might  come  in  a  different  spirit.  But  as  a  rule 
the  education  of  frugality  is  the  best  education  for  all 
services.  (3)  Perhaps  the  folly  of  his  first  marriage 
gave  to  Carey's  capacity  for  folly  a  pretty  exhaustive 
trial.  He  assuredly  led  a  wise  life  afterwards  and  he 
assuredly  did  a  foolish  thing  when  he  married  the 
melancholic  sister  of  his  former  employer.  Whether 
it  is  wise  for  missionaries  to  go  out  married  or  not, 
as  some  debate,  it  is  surely  well  for  them  to  go  wisely 
married  if  they  are  to  be  married  at  all.     Carey's 


62  WILLIAM   CAREY 

wife  was  never  anything  but  a  clog  to  him.  She 
hindered  his  going  and  in  India  she  merely  cumbered 
his  life.  No  word  of  complaint  escaped  him  and  he 
behaved  towards  her  as  a  gentleman  and  a  lover  until 
the  end.  That  is  more  than  can  be  said  of  some 
richer  and  better  born  men  in  like  circumstances. 
He  was  married  twice  afterwards.  When  he  died  he 
prescribed  that  his  name  should  be  cut  on  the  same 
gravestone  with  the  second  wife. 

Poor  and  unadvantaged  as  he  was,  there  was  no 
contraction  or  timidity  in  Carey's  moral  and  intellec- 
tual outlook.  He  opened  a  little  school,  and  as  he 
taught  he  dreamed  and  his  dream  was  great.  Mr. 
Fuller  has  related  that,  on  going  to  his  little  work- 
shop, he  saw  a  large  map  suspended  on  the  wall, 
composed  of  several  sheets  pasted  together,  in  which 
he  had  entered  every  particular  he  had  been  able  to 
glean  relative  to  the  natural  characteristics,  the 
population,  and  the  religion  of  every  country,  as 
then  known.  Mr.  Fuller,  himself,  who  in  after  years 
built  up  the  mission  at  home,  was  startled  by  the 
boldness  and  novelty  of  Carey's  project,  and  described 
his  feelings  as  resembling  those  of  the  unbelieving 
courtier  in  Israel:  ''If  the  Lord  should  make  win- 
dows in  heaven,  might  such  a  thing  be  !  " 

Novel  and  bold  as  the  project  seemed,  it  was  no 
sudden  creation  of  Carey's  brain.  Streams  which 
had  been  running  through  the  conscience  of  the 
Church  simply  came  to  practical  vital  utterance  in 
the  young  Baptist  preacher's  life.  In  1784,  two 
years  before  the  meeting  at  Northampton,  the 
Northamptonshire  association  had  issued  a  resolu- 
tion regarding  united  prayer  for  the  churches  of  the 


THE   CHRISTIAN   PIONEER  63 

association,  but  also  for  wider  objects:  ''"We  trust 
you  will  not  confine  your  requests  to  your  own  so- 
cieties, or  to  our  own  immediate  connection  ;  let  the 
whole  interest  of  the  Eedeemer  be  affectionately  re- 
membered and  the  spread  of  the  Gospel  to  the  most 
distant  parts  of  the  habitable  globe  be  the  object  of 
your  most  fervent  requests.  We  shall  rejoice  if  any 
other  Christian  societies  of  our  own  or  other  de- 
nominations will  unite  with  us,  and  we  do  now  invite 
them  most  cordially  to  join  heart  and  hand  in  the 
attempt.  Who  can  tell  what  the  consequence  of  such 
a  united  effort  in  prayer  may  be? " 

None  of  those  concerned  in  the  call  dreamed  of 
what  its  issues  were  to  be.  This  spirit  of  prayer  was 
intensified  by  the  publication  in  1789  by  Mr.  Sutcliff 
of  Jonathan  Edwards'  "  Humble  Attempt  to  Pro- 
mote Explicit  Agreement  and  Visible  Union  of  God's 
People  in  Extraordinary  Prayer  for  the  Eevival  of 
Eeligion."  Three  years  later,  Carey  published  his 
pamphlet,  "  An  Enquiry  into  the  Obligations  of 
Christians  to  Use  Means  for  the  Conversion  of  the 
Heathens,  in  which  the  Religious  State  of  the  Differ- 
ent Nations  of  the  World,  the  Success  of  Former  Un- 
dertakings, and  the  Practicability  of  Further  Under- 
takings, are  considered  by  William  Carey. ' ' 

The  tract  is  divided  into  five  sections.  The  first 
consists  of  an  inquiry,  ''Whether  the  commission 
given  by  our  Lord  to  His  disciples  be  not  binding  on 
us?"  The  second  contains  "a  short  review  of  for- 
mer undertakings  for  the  conversion  of  the  heathen." 
The  third  furnishes  a  "survey  of  the  present  state  of 
the  world."  The  fourth  consists  of  "considerations 
on  the  practicability  of  something  being  done  more 


64  WILLIAM  CAREY 

than  what  is  done,  for  the  conversion  of  the  heathen." 
The  fifth  embraces  "an  enquiry  into  the  duty  of 
Cliristians  in  general,  and  what  means  ought  to  be 
used,  in  order  to  promote  this  work."  These  are 
fervent  and  united  prayer,  and  exerting  ourselves 
in  the  use  of  means.  Here  he  suggests  the  forma- 
tion of  a  society  such  as  was  afterwards  organized. 
'' Christians,"  he  says,  "  are  a  body  whose  truest  in- 
terest lies  in  the  exaltation  of  the  Messiah's  king- 
dom. Their  charter  is  very  extensive,  their  encour- 
agement exceedingly  great,  and  the  returns  promised 
infinitely  superior  to  all  the  gains  of  the  most  lucra- 
tive fellowship.  Let,  then,  every  one,  in  his  station, 
consider  himself  as  bound  to  act  with  all  his  might, 
and  in  every  possible  way,  for  God."  He  concludes 
his  pamphlet  in  these  earnest  words  :  * '  Surely  it  is 
worth  while  to  lay  ourselves  out,  with  all  our  might, 
in  promoting  the  cause  and  the  kingdom  of  Christ." 
This  ''Enquiry"  had  been  circulated  before  the 
meeting  of  the  ministers'  association  at  Nottingham 
in  May  30,  1792,  where  Carey  preached  his  great 
sermon  on  Isaiah  liv.  2,  3.  Even  after  that,  there  was 
hesitation.  Mr.  Fuller  said,  ' '  Some  of  the  greatest 
difiiculties  we  had  to  encounter  were  the  following  : 
— we  were  inexperienced  in  the  work  ;  we  knew  of  no 
opening  for  a  mission  in  any  one  part  of  the  world 
more  than  another  ;  we  had  no  funds  to  meet  the  ex- 
pense that  must  attend  an  undertaking  of  the  kind  ; 
our  situation  in  an  inland  part  of  the  country  was 
inconvenient  for  foreign  correspondence  ;  the  persons 
who  would  have  the  management  would  live  at  such 
a  distance  from  each  other  as  to  render  frequent  con- 
sultation impracticable  ;  and,  finally,  in  forming  such 


THE   CHRISTIAN   PIONEER  65 

a  society  there  would  be  danger  of  its  falling  under 
irreligious  influence.  From  these  and  other  consid- 
erations, those  who  expected  to  engage  in  the  work 
entered  upon  it  with  much  fear  and  trembling." 
But  Carey  persisted  and  at  the  next  meeting  at  Ket- 
tering on  October  2,  1792,  the  Baptist  Missionary 
Society  was  formed.  And  so  the  great  enterprise 
began,  Carey's  faith  having  held  to  it  immovably 
and  his  own  life  being  offered  as  its  embodiment. 

It  is  interesting  to  recall  that  Carey,  like  Living- 
stone, desired  originally  to  go  to  some  other  field 
than  that  to  which  he  was  sent.  Tahiti  or  Western 
Africa  was  the  field  of  which  he  had  the  first  thought. 
The  matter  was  decided  in  favour  of  India  through 
the  availability  as  a  companion  to  Carey  of  John 
Thomas.  He  was  a  ship  surgeon  who  had  been  em- 
ployed in  independent  missionary  work  in  Bengal. 
He  was  eccentric,  undependable,  irascible,  fluent, 
spiritually  ecstatic  and  generally  incapable.  He  was 
the  means  of  getting  Carey  started  in  the  service,  but 
he  lost  him  the  sympathy  of  the  best  men  in  Calcutta 
and  perhaps  hindered  more  than  he  helped.  But  we 
cannot  say.  Perhaps  without  him  the  new  mission 
might  have  begun  even  worse.  In  every  living  en- 
terprise, you  must  allow  a  large  percentage  for 
waste. 

Carey  was  thirty-three  years  old  when  he  began  in 
India.  Nowadays,  men  seem  to  find  it  hard  to  learn 
a  new  language  at  that  age.  But  Carey  learned  half 
a  dozen.  Undoubtedly,  he  did  have  a  genius  for 
languages,  or  as  he  would  have  said — a  will  to  plod 
at  them.  "It  is  well  known,"  as  he  said  in  the 
"Enquiry,"    "to    require   no    very    extraordinary 


66  WILLIAM  CAREY 

talents  to  learn,  in  the  space  of  a  year,  or  two  at 
most,  the  language  of  any  people  upon  earth."  He 
first  learned  Bengali,  then  Sanskrit.  When  he  had 
been  in  India  about  three  years,  he  wrote  :  "  I  am 
now  learning  the  Sanskrit  language,  that  I  may  be 
able  to  read  their  Shast^rs  for  myself ;  and  I  have  ac- 
quired so  much  of  the  Hindu  or  Hindustani  as  to 
converse  in  it  and  speak  for  some  time  intelligibly. 
.  .  .  Even  the  language  of  Ceylon  has  so  much 
affinity  with  that  of  Bengal  that  out  of  twelve  words, 
with  the  little  Sanskrit  that  I  know,  I  can  understand 
five  or  six."  When  his  son  Jabez  was  sent  as  a  mis- 
sionary to  Amboyna,  one  of  the  Malayan  islands,  at 
the  cost  of  the  East  India  ComxDany  in  1814,  his 
father  wrote  to  him:  "Labour  incessantly  to  be- 
come a  perfect  master  of  the  Malay  language.  In 
order  to  do  this,  associate  with  the  natives,  walk  out 
with  them,  ask  the  name  of  everything  you  see,  and 
note  it  down  ;  visit  their  houses,  especially  when  any 
of  them  are  sick.  Every  night  arrange  the  words  you 
get  in  alphabetical  order.  Try  to  talk  as  you  get  a 
few  words,  and  be  as  much  as  possible  one  of  them. 
A  course  of  kind  and  attentive  conduct  will  gain 
their  esteem  and  confidence  and  give  you  an  oppor- 
tunity of  doing  much  good."  This  counsel  illustrates 
his  own  spirit  towards  the  people  as  well  as  his  idea 
of  how  to  acquire  a  language.  He  worked  over 
grammars  and  dictionaries,  which,  for  the  most  part, 
he  had  to  produce  himself,  but  he  knew  that  the  way 
to  learn  a  language  is  to  go  out  and  talk  with  the 
people  and  take  it  in  through  the  pores. 

It  is  one  thing  for  a  missionary  to  go  out  to  India 
now.     It  was  quite  a  different  thing  for  Carey.     The 


THE  CHRISTIAN   PIONEER  67 

East  India  Company  was  opposed  to  tlie  presence  of 
missionaries  in  the  country,  and  Carey  lived  in  their 
territories  for  the  first  years  only  as  an  indigo  planter. 
Indeed  that  was  the  only  way  he  lived  at  all.  He  and 
Thomas  were  employed  as  assistants  in  Mr.  Udny's 
indigo  factories  at  Malda.  Each  received  a  salary 
equivalent  to  £250  a  year,  with  the  prospect  of  a 
commission,  and  even  a  proprietary  share.  Carey' a 
remark  in  his  journal  on  the  day  he  received  the  offer 
was  :  "This  appearing  to  be  a  remarkable  opening  in 
divine  providence  for  our  comfortable  support,  I  ac- 
cepted it.  .  .  ."  On  receiving  the  rejoinder  to 
his  acceptance  of  the  offer,  he  set  this  down  :  * '  I  am 
resolved  to  write  to  the  Society  that  my  circumstances 
are  such  that  I  do  not  need  future  help  from  them, 
and  to  devote  a  sum  monthly  for  the  printing  of  the 
Bengali  Bible."  "This  he  did,  adding  that  it  would 
be  his  glory  and  joy  to  stand  in  the  same  relation  to 
the  Society  as  if  he  needed  support  from  them.  He 
hoped  they  would  be  the  sooner  able  to  send  another 
mission  somewhere — to  Sumatra  or  some  of  the  Indian 
Islands.  From  the  first,  he  lived  with  such  simplicity 
that  he  gave  one-fourth  to  one-third  of  his  little  in- 
come to  his  own  mission  at  Mudnabati."  ' 

This  idea  of  self-support  in  one  form  or  another 
had  been  in  Carey's  mind  from  the  beginning.  He 
had  embraced  it  in  his  "  Enquiry,"  where  his  proposal 
was  that  each  mission  should  be  a  little  community 
and  be  self-sustaining.  His  experience  in  the  indigo 
factory  confirmed  his  view.  When  Mr.  Udny  was 
forced  to  give  up  his  business,  Carey  wrote  to  Mr. 
Fuller  : 

»  Smith,  "  Life  of  William  Carey,"  p.  77. 


68  WILLIAM  CAREY 

"  The  experience  obtained  here,  I  look  upon  as  the  very 
thing  which  will  tend  to  support  the  mission.  I  know  now 
all  the  methods  of  agriculture  that  are  in  use.  I  know  the 
tricks  of  the  natives  and  the  nature  of  the  lowest  rate  of 
housekeeping  in  this  country.  Having  had  a  monthly  al- 
lowance, I  have  made  all  experiments  on  these  heads,  which 
could  not  have  been  made  without  ruin  had  I  not  had  these 
resources,  and  I  will  now  propose  to  you  what  I  would  rec- 
ommend to  the  Society ;  you  will  find  it  similar  to  what  the 
Moravians  do.  Seven  or  eight  families  can  be  maintained 
for  nearly  the  same  expense  as  one,  if  this  method  be  pur- 
sued. I  then  earnestly  entreat  the  Society  to  set  their  faces 
this  way  and  send  out  more  missionaries.  We  ought  to  be 
given  seven  or  eight  families  together ;  and  it  is  absolutely 
necessary  for  the  wives  of  missionaries  to  be  as  hearty  in 
their  work  as  their  husbands.  Our  families  should  be  con- 
sidered nurseries  for  the  mission  ;  and  among  us  should  be 
a  person  capable  of  teaching  school,  so  as  to  educate  our 
children.  I  recommend  all  living  together,  in  a  number  of 
little  straw  houses,  forming  a  line  or  square,  and  of  having 
nothing  of  our  own,  but  all  general  stock.  One  or  two 
should  be  elected  stewards  to  preside  over  all  the  manage- 
ment, which  should,  with  respect  to  eating,  drinking,  wor- 
ship, learning,  preaching,  excursions,  etc.,  be  reduced  to 
fixed  rules." 

In  anticipation  of  the  coming  of  reinforcements 
Carey  purchased  the  indigo  factory  at  Kidderpore 
and  made  ready  to  realize  his  communistic  plan,  but 
on  their  coming  it  seemed  wiser  to  move  to  the 
Danish  settlement  of  Serampore  to  escape  the  diiGficul- 
ties  which  were  certain  in  the  territory  of  the  East 
India  Company.    So  Carey  abandoned  his  investment 


THE  CHRISTIAN  PIONEER  69 

at  Kidderpore.  That  is  what  missionaries  always  find 
it  hard  to  do.  Many  a  piece  of  unprofitable  mission- 
ary work  is  maintained  and  many  an  unsatisfactory 
station,  because  sometimes  the  courage  is  lacking  to 
sacrifice  what  has  been  established  for  something 
better,  or  because  at  other  times  the  Christian  spirit 
simply  will  not  relinquish  what  has  once  been  begun. 
The  new  missionaries  arrived  in  1799.  Early  the 
following  year,  Carey  and  they  agreed  upon  a  set  of 
rules  to  govern  their  little  community. 

It  was  determined  to  form  a  common  stock,  to  dine 
at  a  common  table,  and  to  give  each  family  a  trifling  al- 
lowance— Mr.  Fuller's  "pocket-money" — for  personal 
expenses.  All  the  missionaries  were  to  be  considered 
on  a  footing  of  equality,  and  to  preach  and  conduct 
social  devotions  in  turn.  The  superintendence  of 
domestic  arrangements  and  expenditure  was  to  be 
entrusted  to  each  missionary  in  rotation  for  a  month. 
Mr.  Carey  had  charge  of  the  public  chest  as  treasurer, 
and  also  of  the  medicine  chest,  for  India  was  then 
considered  so  unhealthy  that  a  constant  resort  to 
medicine  was  deemed  essential  to  existence.  Mr. 
Fountain  was  appointed  librarian.  One  evening  in 
the  week  was  to  be  devoted  to  the  adjustment  of  dif- 
ferences and  the  renewal  of  their  pledge  of  mutual 
love  ;  and  it  was  resolved  that  no  one  should  engage 
in  any  private  trade,  and  that  whatever  might  be 
earned  should  be  credited  to  the  common  stock. 

The  first  year  the  brotherhood  was  more  than  self- 
supporting.  The  next  year  it  had  a  surplus  for  the 
extension  of  the  work,  and  this  success  continued. 

There  was  nothing  new  in  this  idea  of  Christian 
communism.     As  Marshman's  son  says  in  the  story 


70  WILLIAM  CAREY 

of  the  Serampore  Mission,  "  The  Serampore  mission- 
aries, therefore,  when  they  resolved  to  sui)port  them- 
selves while  labouring  to  spread  the  Gospel,  simply- 
adopted  the  principle  on  which  missions  had  been 
conducted  before  the  modern  missionary  system  was 
organized  on  its  present  footing,  and  the  relation  be- 
tween the  missionary  and  the  Society  assumed  its 
present  more  secular  type.  The  only  difference  in 
their  case  was  the  adoption  of  the  novel  principle  of 
divesting  themselves  of  all  right  of  property  in  their 
own  earnings,  and  consecrating  it  exclusively  to  the 
cause  in  which  they  had  embarked,  by  the  formation 
of  a  common  stock."  ' 

But  this  also  was  an  old  idea.  The  Eoman  Catholic 
orders  and  the  monasteries  and  convents  rested  on  it, 
and  it  was  the  Moravian  idea.  It  was  a  unique  ex- 
periment, however,  and  it  has  had  no  worthy  suc- 
cessor. It  is  not  necessary  to  tell  its  whole  story  in  de- 
tail. It  broke  down  at  last  not  because  of  any  inva- 
lidity in  its  principles,  but  because  of  personalities. 
"  The  difficulty  of  management  here  is  that  our  union 
is  of  that  nature  that  it  cannot  exist  until  all  selfish 
and  turbulent  passions  are  subdued,"  said  Carey  in 
1808  at  one  time  of  trial.  Some  of  the  missionaries 
were  accused  of  extravagance  and  self-indulgence. 
Young  men  who  joined  the  mission  were  charged  with 
wilfuUness  and  insubordination.  The  numbers  grew 
too  large  for  as  close  acquaintance  and  constant  con- 
ference as  marked  the  little  group  at  Serampore.  The 
old  administrators  at  home  died  and  new  men  came  in. 
It  was  in  part  the  story  of  the  early  Jerusalem  Church 

*  Marshman,  "  Life  and  Times  of  Carey,  Marshman  and  Ward," 
Vol.  I,  p.  209. 


THE   CHRISTIAN   PIONEER  71 

reproduced.  But  there  will  always  be  those  who  will 
long  for  the  return  of  the  day  wheu  in  the  Church  and 
in  missions,  this  experiment  may  be  repeated  and  ful- 
filled, when,  to  the  destruction  of  neither  but  to  the 
enrichment  of  both,  individual  energy  and  unselfish 
love  may  be  joined  and  merged. 

Where  the  missionaries  worked  for  their  own  sup- 
port, there  was  less  danger  than  in  modern  missions 
where  all  the  funds  are  from  home,  of  the  neglect  of 
self-support  among  the  native  Christians.  One  of 
the  first  converts  received  at  baptism  ' '  a  new  white 
dress  with  six  shillings  ;  but  such  a  gift,  beautiful  in 
itself,  was  soon  discontinued." 

In  1806  the  missionaries  prepared  a  statement, 
setting  forth  their  principles,  both  as  to  the  self-sup- 
port and  the  self-propagation  of  the  Church. 

Happy  is  the  mission  which  perceives  its  duty  in 
such  matters  at  the  outset  and  forms  and  steadfastly 
carries  out  a  true  and  consistent  policy.  But  it  is  a 
rare  thing  to  find  such  clearness  of  perception  and 
such  persistence  of  policy.  New  men  come,  unaware 
of  old  arrangements,  and  as  the  years  pass  the  heavy 
inertia  of  every  society,  even  a  new  Christian  So- 
ciety, drags  down  fine  ideals  and  constrains  men 
to  acquiesce  in  what  is  inferior  and  unsatisfac- 
tory. 

Carey  and  his  associates  dealt  with  this  as  with 
most  problems,  with  good  sense.  The  missionaries 
rigidly  refused  to  compromise  with  caste.  They  ar- 
ranged for  a  burial  in  which  a  converted  Brahman 
and  a  converted  Mohammedan  carried  the  dead  body 
of  another  believer  to  his  grave  on  their  shoulders. 
This  procedure  completed   the  destruction  of  caste 


72  WILLIAM   CAREY 

in  that  Christian  community.  In  the  matter  of  the 
conditions  prerequisite  to  baptism,  the  Serampore 
group  took  the  view  that  *'  We  think  it  right  to  make 
many  allowances  for  ignorance,  and  for  a  state  of 
mind  produced  by  a  corrupt  superstition.  We  there- 
fore cannot  think  of  demanding  from  them,  previous 
to  baptism,  more  than  a  profession  of  dependence  on 
Christ,  from  a  knowledge  of  their  need  of  Him,  and 
submission  to  Him  in  all  things." 

Their  high  standards  broke  down,  however,  in  the 
matter  of  polygamous  applicants  for  baptism  and 
they  admitted  such,  without  requiring  them  to  cease 
their  polygamous  relationship,  but  kept  them  out  of 
church  ofl&ce,  while  ''  pressing  on  the  conscience  of 
all  the  teaching  of  our  Lord  in  Matthew  xix.  and  of 
Paul  in  1  Corinthians  vii." 

Apart  from  the  direct  problems  of  missions  arising 
in  the  fulfillment  of  its  immediate  aims  of  the  con- 
version of  souls  and  the  creation  of  a  native  Church, 
there  are  complicated  questions  springing  from  its 
relationships.  Carey  and  his  associates  had  to  deal 
with  these.  In  some  cases,  they  had  no  precedents 
and  in  many,  the  problems  were  very  intricate  and 
perplexing.  There  was,  first  of  all,  the  problem  of 
their  spiritual  relationship  and  responsibility  in  the 
case  of  other  foreigners.  As  early  as  1793,  the  year 
he  landed  in  India,  Carey  wrote  : 

"  A  missionary  must  be  one  of  the  companions  and 
equals  of  the  people  to  whom  he  is  sent,  and  many  dan- 
gers and  temptations  will  be  in  his  way.  In  a  country  like 
this,  settled  by  Europeans,  the  grandeur,  the  customs,  and 
prejudices  of  the  Europeans  are  exceedingly  dangerous. 


THE  CHRISTIAN   PIONEER  73 

They  are  very  kind  and  hospitable,  but  even  to  visit  them, 
if  a  man  keeps  no  table  of  his  own,  would  more  than  ten 
times  exceed  the  allowance  of  a  mission ;  and  all  their  dis- 
course is  about  the  vices  of  the  natives,  so  that  a  mission- 
ary must  see  thousands  of  people  treating  him  with  the  great- 
est kindness,  but  whom  he  must  be  entirely  different  from  in 
his  life,  his  appearance,  in  everything,  or  it  is  impossible 
for  him  to  stand  their  profuse  way  of  living,  being  so 
contrary  to  his  character  and  so  much  above  his 
ability." 

But  Carey  realized  the  impossibility  of  a  mission- 
ary's separating  himself  from  all  contact  with  other 
foreigners.  And  he  saw  the  necessity  of  effort  to 
make  of  foreign  communities  in  the  heathen  world 
centres  of  pure  influence  rather  than  fountains  of  cor- 
ruption. A  great  change  was  wrought  during  his 
lifetime  in  this  regard  in  Calcutta  and  in  India  as  a 
whole. 

When  Carey  went  to  India  the  conditions  were 
atrocious.  Here  and  there,  an  individual  stood  out 
as  a  rare  exception  of  conscience  and  purity.  Charles 
Grant  was  one  of  these.  ' '  Amidst  the  universal  scep- 
ticism of  the  day,  he  exhibited  in  his  principles  and 
his  practice  a  noble  specimen  of  the  Christian  char- 
acter. While  all  around  him,  with  rare  exceptions, 
were  absorbed  in  the  pursuit  of  wealth,  he  devoted 
his  attention  to  the  moral  and  religious  improvement 
of  the  natives.  At  that  early  period,  he  appears  to 
have  adopted  the  opinion  subsequently  enunciated  by 
Sir  Charles  Metcalfe,  that  divine  providence  had 
assuredly  some  higher  object  in  bestowing  the  empire 
of  India  on  England,  than  to  facilitate  the  export  or 


74  WILLIAM  CAREY 

import  of  cotton-piece  goods."  ^  The  general  tone, 
however,  was  dismally  abased.  The  moral  condition 
will  be  sufficiently  illustrated  by  recalling  the  agita- 
tion of  1804  in  Bengal  over  the  Civil  Fund  question. 
* '  The  members  of  the  Civil  Service  became  anxious  to 
establish  a  fund  for  the  support  of  their  widows  and 
orphans,  and  the  plan  of  a  Civil  Fund  was  drawn  up 
and  circulated  among  them.  The  old  gentlemen  of 
the  service,  who  had  grown  gray  in  Indian  as- 
sociation, were  desirous  to  extend  the  benefit  of  it  to 
their  dark  illegitimate  children.  But  the  younger 
civilians  connected  with  the  college.  In  a  number 
between  fifty  and  sixty,  whom  it  had  been  the  aim 
of  Lord  Wellesley  to  train  up  in  the  principles  of 
virtue  and  religion,  united  with  one  voice  in  depre- 
cating a  proposal  which,  as  they  had  justly  observed, 
involved  '  the  total  violation  of  one  of  the  great  ordi- 
nances of  the  divine  law.  .  .  .'  After  the  discus- 
sion had  been  carried  on  for  some  time,  the  two  parties 
formally  divided.  The  Civil  Service  at  that  time 
consisted  of  350  members,  one-half  of  whom  voted  for 
the  admission  of  bastards,  the  other  half  against  it. 
The  question  was  then  submitted  to  the  arbitration 
of  Lord  Wellesley,  who  did  not  hesitate  for  a  moment 
to  limit  the  benefit  of  the  fund  to  children  born  in 
wedlock,  leaving  upon  the  175  civilians  the  task  of 
providing,  from  their  own  funds,  for  the  offspring  of 
the  loathsome  zenanas.  Not  disheartened  by  this  de- 
cision, they  appealed  to  the  Court  of  Directors,  affirm- 
ing that  their  masters  would  never  vote  with  the 
college,  because  they  would  see  how  '■  unfriendly  it 

'  Marshman,  "  Life  and  Times  of  Carey,  Marshman  and  Ward, " 
VoL  I,  p.  28. 


THE   CHRISTIAN   PIONEER  J$ 

was  to  ancient  institutions.'  But  the  Court  not  only 
sanctioned  the  clause  which  escluded  illegitimate 
children,  but  endowed  the  fund  with  an  annual  sub- 
scription of  £2,500." 

Many  influences  cooperated  to  terminate  conditions 
so  disgraceful.  Moral  sentiment  at  home  was  steadily 
rising.  The  idea  that  India  must  be  governed  on 
moral  principles  and  that  England  was  responsible 
for  improving  the  condition  of  the  people  intellec- 
tually and  morally,  indicated  in  the  various  revisions 
of  the  charter  of  the  East  India  Company,  accom- 
plished a  great  deal  ;  but  on  the  other  hand,  this 
change  of  view  at  home  was  largely  due  to  the  mis- 
sionary enteriDrise,  and  in  India  the  presence  of  the 
missionaries  and  their  example  and  influence  operated 
constantly  as  a  purifying  power.  This  was  conscious 
and  aggressive  as  well  as  passive.  Perilous  as  the 
entanglement  of  missionaries  with  the  social  life  of 
other  Western  representatives  undoubtedly  is,  one  of 
the  great  needs  of  the  day  is  such  a  closer  relation- 
ship as  will  save  to  Christianity  hosts  of  men  from 
Christian  lands  who  are  going  to  the  heathen  world 
to  lose  their  Christianity,  and  become  paganized.  If 
the  missionary  enterprise  cannot  care  for  the  problem 
without  injury  to  its  own  first  business,  some  other 
agency  must  be  developed  to  look  after  it.  The 
old  Foreign  and  Christian  Union  did  a  good 
work  in  this  direction  a  generation  or  more  ago. 
But  now,  a  thousand  times  more  than  then,  an  effort 
is  needed  to  save  to  purity  and  godliness  the  in- 
creasing streams  of  young  men,  who  are  pouring 
out  from  America  and  losing  their  souls  in  the 
non- Christian  world.     This  effort  must  be  made  by 


76  WILLIAM  CAREY 

the  Church  directly  and  not  alone  through  useful 
auxiliary  agencies. 

Carey  had  to  deal  with  this  difficult  relationship. 
He  had  to  deal  also  with  the  problem  of  the  duty  of 
a  mission  in  the  matter  of  gross  moral  and  legal 
evils  which  might  be  removed  at  once  by  influencing 
political  authority  already  in  existence,  without 
waiting  for  their  slow  destruction  through  genera- 
tions by  the  reformation  of  individuals  and  the 
education  of  society.  And  the  moral  conditions  of 
Hindu  life  were  simply  indescribable  when  Carey 
went  to  India.'  He  presented  memorials  against 
female  infanticide,  voluntary  drowning  and  widow- 
burning.  He  collected  testimony  and  educated 
opinion.  He  antagonized  slavery  and  made  pro- 
vision for  the  care  of  lepers.  He  was  not  of  those 
who  hold  it  to  be  wrong  to  interfere  with  native 
customs,  even  though  evil.  It  was  on  the  basis  of  a 
report  of  his  that  the  Governor- General  ventured  to 
issue  a  proclamation,  prohibiting  the  sacrifice  of 
children  at  the  great  annual  festival  of  Gunga  Saugor." 
Missions  may  easily  be  diverted  from  their  own 
business  and  turned  into  general  educational  or  re- 
formatory bureaus,  and  it  is  an  evil  thing  when  this 
is  allowed  to  happen,  but  there  is  no  peril,  and  there 
is  much  gain  which  it  would  be  wrong  to  sacrifice 
when  missions,  which  have  powerful  headway  in  the 
direction  of  their  own  supreme  end,  throw  out  their 
energies  and  influences  to  stop  all  possible  moral 
evil, — the  slave  trade,  widow-burning,  the  traffic  in 
opium,  the  sale  of  liquor  to  the  dependent  races.     The 

» Smith,  "  Life  of  William  Carey,"  pp.  60,  65 f.,  98. 
•Myers,  "William  Carey,"  p.  123. 


THE   CHRISTIAN   PIONEER  ^^ 

destruction  of  all  such  evil  is  a  duty  in  itself  and  it  pre- 
pares a  better  atmosphere  in  which  to  spread  the  truth. 
By  the  methods  of  work  which  he  used  in  missions 
and  by  his  own  direct  influence  in  the  service  of  the 
government,  Carey  affected  greatly  the  development 
of  the  agencies  of  education  and  improvement  which 
the  new  conscience,  slowly  coming  to  birth,  was 
creating  in  India.  Long  before  the  government 
awoke  to  its  educational  duty,  the  Serampore  mis- 
sionaries were  working  at  the  problem.  They  had 
propounded  a  great  scheme,  which  had  been  sent  to 
Fuller.  After  its  transmission,  * '  they  gradually 
augmented  the  number  of  their  schools  and  en- 
deavoured to  improve  their  character.  Under  the 
new  and  more  favourable  aspect  which  the  question 
of  education  had  assumed,  they  determined  to  appeal 
to  the  public  for  the  means  of  enlarging  their  efforts. 
Under  the  modest  title  of  'Hints,'  they  proposed  a 
well  digested  system  of  national  education,  susceptible 
of  indefinite  expansion,  which  no  subsequent  efforts 
have  rendered  obsolete.  The  plan  was  never  carried 
out  to  its  legitimate  extent ;  but  there  can  be  little 
doubt  that  if  the  Serampore  missionaries  had  been 
enabled  to  prosecute  it  with  their  usual  ardour,  the 
lower  provinces  of  Bengal  would  have  presented  a 
different  aspect  to  that  which  they  now  exhibit.  At 
the  end  of  forty  years  of  comparative  inaction,  the 
Board  of  Control  has  sanctioned  a  system  of  vernac- 
ular education  in  India  on  an  extended  scale ;  but 
the  germ  of  it  is  to  be  found  in  the  pamphlet  of 
*  Hints '  published  at  Serampore  in  the  year  1816."  ' 

'Marshman,  "Life  and  Times  of  Gary,  Marsbman  and  Ward," 
Vol.  II,  p.  119  f. 


78  WILLIAM  CAREY 

As  we  shall  come  to  the  problem  again  in  con- 
nection with  Duff's  work,  it  may  be  well  now  to  re- 
call j  ust  what  the  issue  was  at  this  time.  Three  differ- 
ent plans  were  advocated  at  this  period  by  three 
parties,  that  of  the  Orientalists,  the  Anglicists,  and 
the  Vernacularists. 

"The  Orientahsts,  without  repudiating  in  theory  the  value 
of  instruction  through  the  medium  of  English,  or  of  the 
native  tongues,  contended  that  the  patronage  of  the  state 
should  be  given  primarily  to  the  encouragement  of  Oriental 
literature,  Hindu  and  Mohammedan,  that  the  parliamentary 
grant  was  designed  to  promote  this  object,  and  should 
be  exclusively  appropriated  to  it.  .  .  .  With  the  new- 
educational  movement  another  party  arose  at  this  time, 
at  the  head  of  which  was  Sir  Edward  Hyde  East  and  the 
Rev.  T.  Thomason.  They  considered  that  the  intellectual 
progress  of  the  country  would  be  most  effectually  promoted 
by  a  liberal  education  through  the  exclusive  medium  of  the 
English  language.  .  .  .  They  were  buoyed  up  with 
the  hope  that  by  strenuous  and  continued  exertion  English 
might  come  to  occupy  the  same  place  in  India  which  Latin 
had  formerly  occupied  in  the  Roman  Empire.  Some  were 
even  so  sanguine  as  to  expect  that  it  might  in  the  lapse  of 
time  supersede  the  mother  tongue  of  India,  and  become 
the  general  medium  of  communication,  and  thus  bind  the 
people  to  their  conquerors  by  the  bond  of  a  common  lan- 
guage. They  maintained,  moreover,  that  it  was  more 
advisable  to  give  a  complete  education  to  a  few  than  an 
imperfect  education  to  the  multitude,  and  to  promote  the 
cultivation  of  a  language  already  enriched  with  a  noble 
literature,  than  of  one  in  which  a  literature  had  to  be  created. 
The  Serampore  missionaries  stood  alone  in  advocating  a 


THE  CHRISTIAN   PIONEER  79 

vernacular  education  as  the  only  means  by  which  the  great 
body  of  the  people,  who  had  no  leisure  for  the  acquisition  of 
a  foreign  language,  could  be  rescued  from  the  evils  of  igno- 
rance and  superstition.  It  was  upon  these  views  that  the 
'  Hints  '  for  native  schools  was  based."  * 

Carey  did  not  fail  to  appreciate  the  importance 
of  the  English  language  in  a  land  like  India.  As 
Dr.  Smith  says : 

"  He  had  not  been  six  months  in  Serampore  when  he 
saw  the  importance  of  using  the  English  language  as  a 
missionary  weapon,  and  he  proposed  this  to  Andrew 
Fuller.  The  other  pressing  duties  of  a  pioneer  mission 
to  the  people  of  Bengal  led  him  to  postpone  immediate 
action  in  this  direction.  .  .  .  But  meanwhile,  the 
vernacular  schools,  which  soon  numbered  a  hundred  alto- 
gether, were  most  popular,  and  then  as  now  proved  most 
valuable  feeders  of  the  infant  Church.  '  Without  them,' 
wrote  the  three  missionaries  to  the  Society,  '  the  whole  plan 
must  have  been  nipped  in  the  bud,  since,  if  the  natives 
had  not  cheerfully  sent  their  children,  everything  else 
would  have  been  useless.  But  the  earnestness  with  which 
they  have  sought  these  schools  exceeds  everything  we  had 
previously  expected.  We  are  still  constantly  importuned 
for  more  schools,  although  we  have  long  gone  beyond  the 
extent  of  our  funds.'  It  was  well  that  thus  early  in 
schools,  in  books,  and  tracts,  and  in  providing  the  literary 
form  and  apparatus  of  the  vernacular  languages,  Carey 
laid  the  foundation  of  the  new  national  or  imperial  civiliza- 

1  Marshman,  •'  Life  and  Times  of  Gary,  Marshman  and  "Ward," 
Vol.  II,  pp.  120-122. 


8o  WILLIAM   CAREY 

tion.     When  the  time  for  English  came,  the  foundations 
were  at  least  above  the  ground."  * 

In  1801,  Lord  "Wellesley  as  Governor-General  es- 
tablished at  Calcutta  the  college  known  as  Fort 
William  College  for  the  training  of  civil  servants, 
a  new  departure  and  a  great  progressive  step.  The 
college  was  intended  to  fit  the  young  men  from 
home  for  their  duties  in  India.  They  were  to  begin 
their  course  by  a  three  years'  study  of  the  vernaculars 
which  they  were  to  use  and  the  college  was  to  be 
also:  "a  centre  of  "Western  learning  in  an  Eastern 
dress  for  the  natives  of  India  and  Southern  Asia, 
alike  as  students  and  teachers."  Carey  was  called 
to  be  professor  of  Bengali  and  Sanskrit  in  this  college, 
and  accepted  the  position.  His  salary  was  £700  a 
year  and  soon  increased  to  £1800.  It  was  turned  in, 
of  course,  to  the  common  fund  of  the  Serampore 
brotherhood.  Here  Carey  had  an  opportunity  to 
exert  an  even  greater  influence  in  behalf  of  his 
ideals  of  education  and  administration.  He  gave 
utterance  to  these  and  also  avowed  his  missionary 
character  in  his  address  in  1804,  when  the  first  San- 
skrit class  was  graduated.  This  address  greatly 
pleased  Lord  Wellesley,  and  referring  to  its  words  of 
praise  for  him,  as  the  founder  of  such  an  institution, 
he  said,  ''  I  esteem  such  a  testimony  from  such  a  man 
a  greater  honour  than  the  applause  of  Courts  and 
Parliaments." 

Carey  had  not  accepted  the  position  without 
misgivings.  When  the  call  came  to  him,  he 
says: 

'Smith,  "Life  of  William  Carey,"  p.  136. 


THE   CHRISTIAN   PIONEER  8l 

"  I  had  but  just  time  to  call  our  brethren  together,  who 
were  of  the  opinion  that  for  several  reasons  I  ought  to 
accept  it,  provided  that  it  did  not  interfere  with  the  work 
of  the  mission.  I  also  knew  myself  to  be  incapable  of 
filling  such  a  position  with  reputation  and  propriety.  I, 
however,  went  over,  and  honestly  proposed  all  my  fears 
and  objections.  Both  Mr.  Brown  and  Mr.  Buchanan  were 
of  the  opinion  that  the  cause  of  the  mission  would  be  fur- 
thered by  it ;  and  I  was  not  able  to  reply  to  their  arguments. 
I  was  convinced  that  it  might.  As  to  my  ability,  they 
could  not  satisfy  me  ;  but  they  insisted  on  it  that  they  must 
be  the  judges  of  that.  I  therefore  consented  with  fear  and 
trembling.  They  proposed  me  that  day,  or  the  next,  to 
the  Governor-General,  who  is  patron  and  visitor  of  the 
college.  They  told  him  that  1  had  been  a  missionary  in 
the  country  for  seven  years  or  more  ;  and  as  a  missionary  I 
was  appointed  to  the  office.  .  .  .  When  I  was  pro- 
posed, his  lordship  asked  if  I  was  well  affected  to  the  state, 
and  capable  of  fulfilling  the  duties  of  the  station ;  to  which 

Mr.  B replied  that  he  should  never  have  proposed  me 

if  he  had  had  the  smallest  doubt  on  those  heads.  I  wonder 
how  people  can  have  such  favourable  ideas  of  me.  I 
certainly  am  not  disaffected  to  the  state ;  but  the  other  is 
not  clear  to  me." 

His  friendly  relation  to  the  government,  he  says, 
was  not  doubtful.  That  was  one  clear  point.  He 
had  had  occasion  to  speak  of  this  to  others.  He 
warned  young  men  against  meddling  and  political 
pugnacity.  He  himself  at  times  adopted  a  very  mild 
course  in  the  face  of  political  hindrance.  But  he 
never  betrayed  his  work.  In  the  timid  times  after 
the  Yellore  Mutiny,  the  government  was  extremely 


82  WILLIAM   CAREY 

cautious  in  allowing  missionary  activity.  The 
Governor-General,  Sir  George  Barlow,  even  ex- 
pressed a  wish  that  he  (Carey)  should  not  inter- 
fere with  the  prejudices  of  the  natives  by  preaching 
to  them  or  distributing  books  or  pamphlets  amongst 
them  ;  that  his  colleagues  were  to  observe  the  same 
line  of  conduct ;  and  further,  that  the  converted 
natives  were  not  to  go  into  the  country  to  spread 
Christianity  among  the  people.  Carey  was  no  man 
to  surrender.  He  had  gone  to  India  in  the  face  of  the 
East  India  Company's  prohibition,  and  when  at 
various  times  the  government  set  itself  against  his 
work  he  would  await  a  change  in  the  governmeut's 
mood,  but  not  for  a  moment  would  he  yield  his  prin- 
ciples. He  was  well  disposed  to  the  government,  he 
said,  and  he  strove  to  obey  it,  but  he  was  subject  to 
a  higher  law  and  when  the  two  clashed,  he  knew 
which  to  choose. 

But  being  friendly  and  obedient  to  the  government 
was  quite  a  different  matter  from  accepting  employ- 
ment under  it,  and  it  is  not  surprising  that  Carey  hesi- 
tated. When  his  son  Felix  withdrew  from  his  mission- 
ary work  to  become  the  Burmese  ambassador  of  the 
Governor-General  of  India  in  1814,  Carey  wrote,  la- 
menting the  step,  toEyland:  ''Felix  is  shrivelled  from 
a  missionary  to  an  ambassador."  There  have  been 
cases  where  such  a  change  has  not  been  a  shrivelling, 
but  Carey,  himself,  felt  that  nothing  was  comparable 
with  the  missionary  service  and  in  his  own  case  he  was 
a  missionary  all  the  while  he  held  government  office. 
And  in  his  case  this  fact,  the  sheer  power  of  the  pure 
missionary  purpose  in  him  which  robbed  all  accessory 
relationships  and  activities  of  peril,  and  the  commu- 


THE   CHRISTIAN   PIONEER  83 

nistic  principles  of  the  Serampore  Brotlierliood,  -which 
destroyed  all  danger  of  secularization  through  money, 
saved  Carey  from  perils  which  are  often  fatal  to  other 
men  who  turn  from  their  direct  religious  work  to 
some  other  service  and  with  whom  too  often  this 
turning  is  like  that  of  Demas. 

This  exaltation  of  the  pure  missionary  service  as 
the  noblest  service  in  the  world  was  characteristic 
of  Carey.  In  1809,  he  wrote  to  his  son  William  with 
equal  lowliness  and  spiritual  nobility  : 

"Should  you,  after  many  years'  labour,  be  instru- 
mental in  the  conversion  of  only  one  soul,  it  would 
be  worth  the  work  of  a  whole  life.  ...  I  am 
not  sure  that  I  have  been  of  real  use  to  any  one  person 
since  I  have  been  in  this  country,  yet  I  dare  not  give 
up  the  work  in  which  I  am  engaged.  Indeed,  not- 
withstanding all  the  discouragements  which  I  feel 
from  my  own  unfitness  for  any  part  of  it,  I  prefer  it  to 
everything  else,  and  consider  that  in  the  work  of  my 
Eedeemer  I  have  a  rich  reward." 

Again  he  wrote  to  the  same  son  :  ' '  Now,  dear 
"William,  what  do  we  live  for  but  to  promote  the 
cause  of  our  dear  Eedeemer  in  the  world  1  If  that  be 
carried  on,  we  need  not  wish  for  anything  more. 
.  .  .  Indeed,  were  you  never  to  be  blessed  to  the 
conversion  of  one  soul,  still  the  pleasure  of  labouring 
in  the  work  of  the  Lord  is  greater  than  that  of  any 
other  undertaking  in  the  world,  and  is  of  itself  suffi- 
cient  to  make  it  the  work  of  our  choice." 

*'  I  am  not  sure  that  I  have  been  of  real  use  to  any 
one  person  since  I  have  been  in  this  country."  What 
a  remarkable  word  to  come  from  Carey  after  sixteen 
years  in  India  !    Did  he  not  know  of  one  soul  brought 


84  WILLIAM   CAREY 

to  Christ  by  his  work  ?  Assuredly  he  knew  of  many, 
and  he  knew  of  other  incalculable  iullueuces  which  he 
had  set  in  motion.  But  he  was  one  of  those  who  do 
not  think  highly  of  themselves ;  who  think  soberly 
and  humbly  and  without  self-esteem.  Ko  one  ever 
picked  a  quarrel  with  him  over  a  question  of  personal 
honour  or  precedence.  How  deep  was  his  self-depre- 
ciation is  shown  by  the  account  he  gave  of  himself 
to  Dr.  Eyland  in  1804,  when  he  had  been  a  mission- 
ary for  eleven  years : 

"I  am  convinced  that  some  sins  have  always  attended 
me,  as  if  they  made  a  part  of  my  constitution;  among 
these  I  reckon  pride  or  rather  vanity, — an  evil  which  I 
have  detected  frequently,  but  have  never  been  free  from 
to  this  day.  Indolence  in  divine  things  is  constitutional ; 
few  people  can  think  what  necessity  I  am  constantly  under 
of  summoning  all  my  resolution  to  engage  in  anything 
which  God  has  commanded.  This  makes  me  peculiarly 
unfit  for  the  ministry,  and  much  more  for  the  office  of  a 
missionary.  I  now  doubt  seriously  whether  persons  of  such 
a  constitution  should  be  engaged  in  the  Christian  ministry. 
This,  and  what  I  am  going  to  mention,  fill  me  with  con- 
tinued guilt,  A  want  of  character  and  firmness  has  always 
predominated  in  me.  I  have  not  resolution  enough  to  re- 
prove sin,  to  introduce  serious  and  evangelical  conversa- 
tion in  carnal  company,  especially  among  the  great,  to 
whom  I  have  sometimes  access.  I  sometimes  labour  with 
myself  long,  and  at  last  prevail  sufficiently  to  break  silence  ; 
or,  if  I  introduce  a  subject,  want  resolution  to  keep  it  up, 
if  the  company  do  not  show  a  readiness  thereto." 

He  closes  the  letter  with  the  words  : 


THE   CHRISTIAN   PIONEER  85 

"I  have  now  only  to  desire  of  you  that  the  above  (his  auto- 
biographical sketch)  may  not  be  published ;  though  I  have 
no  objection  to  your  publishing  any  parts  thereof,  provided 
you  so  conceal  names  and  other  allusions,  as  that  it  may 
never  be  known  that  it  is  an  account  of  me.  Every  publi- 
cation of  this  kind,  if  the  author  be  known,  makes  him 
more  public ;  and  as  it  is  very  uncertain  whether  I  shall 
not  dishonour  the  Gospel  before  I  die,  so  as  to  bring  a 
public  scandal  thereupon,  the  less  is  said  about  me  the 
better." 

One  of  the  most  familiar  stories  about  him  relates 
to  his  quiet  remark  to  a  young  snob  from  England 
whom  he  overheard  asking  some  one  at  one  of  the 
Governor- General's  parties  in  Calcutta,  whether  Dr. 
Carey  had  not  been  a  shoemaker.  ''I^o,"  said 
Carey,  turning  about  and  replying,  ' '  only  a  cob- 
bler." It  was  not  said  vindictively.  It  was  the 
man's  natural  humility  of  soul.  When  complaint 
was  made  once  of  the  absence  of  inscriptions  in  the 
mission  burying  ground,  he  replied  :  "Why  should 
we  be  remembered  ?  I  think  when  I  am  dead,  the 
sooner  I  am  forgotten,  the  better."  And  on  his  own 
gravestone  he  directed  that  nothing  more  should  be 
cut  than  the  words  : 

*'  William  Carey,  horn  August  17,  176 ly 
died  June  9,  1834-. 

"  A  wretched,  poor,  and  helpless  worm, 
On  Thy  kind  arms  I  fall." 

There  was  nothing  insincere  in  all  this.  Carey  was 
a  great  man  in  spite  of  his  own  difddence  and  self- 


86  WILLIAM  CAREY 

distrust.  He  drove  himself  to  duty  finding  it  hard 
to  do.  He  ajDpealed  to  others  to  attemi)t  great  things 
and  he  stirred  himself  to  respond  to  his  own  appeal. 
If  others  had  only  put  forth  a  fraction  of  his  effort, 
great  things  would  have  been  achieved.  Undoubt- 
edly, there  must  have  been  great  latent  talents  of 
ability  and  of  character  iu  him,  but  we  must  believe 
his  own  account  of  himself.  He  says  he  had  to  fight 
constantly  with  indolence. 

*' Indolence,"  he  wrote  Dr.  Eyland  in  1802,  "is 
my  prevailing  sin,  and  to  that  are  now  added  a 
number  of  avocations  which  I  never  thought  of ;  I 
have  also  so  continual  a  fear  that  I  may  at  last  fall 
some  way  or  other  so  as  to  dishonour  the  Gospel  that 
I  have  often  desired  that  my  name  may  be  buried  in 
oblivion ;  and  indeed  I  have  reason  for  those  fears, 
for  I  am  so  prone  to  sin  that  I  wonder  every  night 
that  I  have  been  preserved  from  foul  crimes  through 
the  day,  and  when  I  escape  a  temptation  I  esteem  it 
to  be  a  miracle  of  grace  which  has  preserved  me.  I 
never  was  so  fully  persuaded  as  I  am  now  that  no 
habit  of  religion  is  a  security  from  falling  into  the 
foulest  crimes,  and  I  need  the  immediate  help  of  God 
every  moment.  The  sense  of  my  continual  danger 
has,  I  confess,  operated  strongly  upon  me  to  induce 
me  to  desire  that  no  publication  of  a  religious  nature 
should  be  published  as  mine  whilst  I  am  alive.  An- 
other reason  is  my  sense  of  incapacity  to  do  justice  to 
any  subject,  or  even  to  write  good  sense.  I  have,  it 
is  true,  been  obliged  to  publish  several  things,  and  I 
can  say  that  nothing  but  necessity  could  have  induced 
me  to  do  it.  They  are,  however,  only  grammatical 
works,  and  certainly  the  very  last  things  which  I 


THE  CHRISTIAN  PIONEER  87 

should  have  written  if  I  could  have  chosen  for 
myself." 

The  moral  sensitiveness  which  Carey  possessed  is  a 
great  necessity  and  safeguard  in  missionary  life  and 
in  all  highest  character.  No  one  who  has  been  in  a 
position  to  know  the  inner  lives  of  good  men  can  fail 
to  appreciate  the  importance  of  such  a  sense  of  moral 
peril  and  need  of  supernatural  help  to  be  kept  in  a 
blameless  life. 

How  Carey  overcame  his  indolence  his  life  well 
illustrates.  He  simply  toiled.  A  disinclination  to 
work  is  no  reason  for  not  working.  Any  man  can 
work  who  will  whether  he  has  a  disposition  for  it  or 
not.  And  on  the  mission  field  men  must  work. 
There  is  no  place  there  for  drones  or  shirks.  As 
Mr.  Ward  wrote  to  Mr.  Fuller  : 

"  It  was  work  in  which  half  the  dissenting  minis- 
ters in  England,  who  merely  preach  twice  or  thrice  a 
week,  when  people  come  to  hear  the  Word,  would  be 
of  little  use.  A  man  who  shall  do  good  here  must  be 
on  his  legs,  or  in  the  saddle  or  in  his  boat.  In  the 
hands  of  a  mere  domesticated  man,  who  prays  at 
home,  but  never  goes  out  into  the  highways  and 
ditches,  things  die  a  natural  death.  Men  must  go 
out  a-fishing  ;  the  fish  will  never  leave  their  natural 
element  and  walk  into  their  nets,  and  they  must  be 
patient,  too,  though  they  toil  all  night  and  catch 
nothing." 

Here  is  a  specimen  day  during  Carey's  life  in  Cal- 
cutta in  1807  : 

* '  He  rose  at  quarter  before  six,  read  a  chapter  in  the 
Hebrew  Bible,  and  spent  the  time  till  seven  in  private 
devotions.     He  then  had  family  prayer  in  Bengali 


88  WILLIAM   CAREY 

with  the  servants,  after  which  he  read  Persian  with  a 
Moonshee  who  was  in  attendance.  As  soon  as  break- 
fast was  over,  he  sat  down  to  the  translation  of  the 
Eamayana,  with  a  pundit  till  ten  ;  when  he  proceeded 
to  the  college,  and  attended  its  duties  till  two.  Ee- 
turning  home,  he  examined  a  proof-sheet  of  the 
Bengali  translation  of  Jeremiah,  and  dined  with  his 
friend,  Mr.  Bolt.  After  dinner,  with  the  aid  of  the 
chief  pundit  of  the  college,  he  translated  a  chapter  of 
Matthew  into  Sanskrit.  At  six,  he  sat  down  with 
the  Telinga  pundit,  to  study  that  language,  and  then 
preached  an  English  sermon  to  a  congregation  of 
about  forty.  The  service  being  ended  at  nine,  he  sat 
down  to  the  translation  of  Ezekiel  into  Bengali, — he 
had  thrown  aside  his  former  version,  and  was  now 
translating  the  prophets.  At  eleven,  the  duties  of 
the  day  closed^  and  after  reading  a  chapter  in  the 
Greek  Testament,  and  commending  himself  to  God, 
he  retired  to  rest." 

At  the  age  of  seventy,  when  the  financial  affairs  of 
the  Serampore  Brotherhood  were  very  uncertain,  one 
of  his  colleagues  wrote  of  him  :  "Though  thus  re- 
duced in  his  circumstances  the  good  man,  about  to 
enter  on  his  seventieth  year,  is  as  cheerful  and  happy 
as  the  day  is  long.  He  rides  out  four  or  five  miles 
every  morning,  returning  home  by  sunrise^  goes 
on  with  the  work  of  translation  day  by  day,  gives 
two  lectures  on  divinity,  and  one  on  natural  history 
every  week  in  the  college,  and  takes  his  turn  of 
preaching  both  in  Bengali  and  in  English."  All  his 
life,  he  knew  how  to  work,  even  though  he  was  indo- 
lent. He  held  tenaciously  to  duty.  He  portioned 
out  time  so  as  not  to  fritter  it  away.     He  knew  how 


THE   CHRISTIAN   PIONEER  89 

to  use  its  fragments.  By  devoting  to  some  of  his 
greatest  literary  works  mere  fractions  of  time,  lie  suc- 
ceeded in  completing  them.  "Hence  his  Sanskrit 
grammar  of  a  thousand  pages.  Hence,  too,  his  Ben- 
gali dictionary  of  three  quarto  volumes,  designed  and 
executed  on  a  painfully  elaborate  plan.  And  hence, 
also,  his  translation  of  the  celebrated  Sanskrit  poem, 
the  Eamayana ;  which  last  work,  to  the  extent  of 
several  volumes,  he  effected  by  dictating  to  an 
amanuensis  about  two  hours  only  once  in  seven  days. 
By  this  means  his  Scriptural  translations  advanced 
by  slow,  but  regular  degrees,  until,  in  the  course  of 
years,  the  work  arrived  at  so  prodigious  an  aggre- 
gate as  to  require  no  ordinary  effort  to  believe  it 
possible  that  any  one  man,  let  his  advantages  be  what 
they  might,  could  accomplish  so  vast  an  achieve- 
ment. But  invincible  patience  in  labour,  and  unceas- 
ing constancy,  secured  his  triumph  over  every  ob- 
struction. ' '  ^  The  world' s  output  of  good  work  would 
be  quadrupled  if  men  knew  this  open  secret  of  the 
plodding  cobbler. 

But  to  call  him  a  plodder  does  not  explain  Carey. 
He  was  a  great  man,  whatever  he  says  of  himself, 
and  yet  his  greatness,  barring  his  linguistic  genius, 
was  of  the  kind  accessible  to  every  man.  Every  man 
may  have  his  great  vision.  He  saw  far  and  wide. 
We  have  seen  how  great  were  his  dreams  as  the  shoe- 
maker teacher.  The  first  years  he  was  in  India,  he 
wrote : 

"I  hope  the  Society  will  go  on  and  increase,  and 
that  the  multitudes  of  heathen  in  the  world  may  hear 
the  glorious  words  of  truth.     Africa  is  but  a  little 

» Belcher,  "William  Carey,"  p.  243. 


90  WILLIAM   CAREY 

way  from  England  ;  Madagascar  but  a  little  way 
farther ;  South  America,  and  all  the  numerous  and 
large  islands  in  the  Indian  and  Chinese  seas,  I  hope 
will  not  be  passed  over." 

He  urged  the  occupation  of  Thibet,  Afghanistan, 
where  he  thinks  the  lost  Ten  Tribes  are,  and  his  eyes 
Bweep  the  whole  world.     In  1809,  he  writes  : 

**  The  state  of  the  world  occupies  ray  thoughts  more  and 
more ;  I  mean  as  it  relates  to  the  spread  of  the  Gospel. 
The  harvest  truly  is  great  and  labourers  bear  scarcely  any 
proportion  thereto.  Hindustan  requires  ten  thousand  min- 
isters of  the  Gospel,  at  the  lowest  calculation,  China  as 
many,  and  you  may  easily  calculate  for  the  rest  of  the 
world.  I  trust  that  many  will  eventually  be  raised  up 
here,  but  be  that  as  it  may,  the  demands  for  missionaries 
are  pressing  to  a  degree  seldom  realized.  England  has 
done  much,  but  not  the  hundredth  part  of  what  she  is 
bound  to  do.  In  so  great  a  want  of  ministers  ought  not 
every  church  to  turn  its  attention  chiefly  to  the  raising  up 
and  maturing  of  spiritual  gifts  with  the  express  design  of 
sending  them  abroad  ?  Should  not  this  be  a  specific 
matter  of  prayer,  and  is  there  not  reason  to  labour  hard  to 
infuse  this  spirit  into  the  churches  ?  A  mission  into  Siam 
would  be  comparatively  easy  of  introduction  and  support 
on  account  of  its  vicinity  to  Prince  of  Wales  Island,  from 
which  vessels  can  often  go  in  a  few  hours.  A  mission  to 
Pegu  and  another  to  Arakan  would  not  be  difficult  of  in- 
troduction, they  being  both  within  the  Burraan  dominions. 
Missions  to  Assam  and  Nepal  should  be  speedily  tried. 
Brother  Robinson  is  going  to  Bhotan.  I  do  not  know 
anything  about  the  facility  with  which  missions  could  be 
introduced  into  Cochin  China,  Cambodia  and  Laos,  but 


THE   CHRISTIAN   PIONEER  9I 

were  the  trial  made,  I  believe  difficulties  would  remove. 
It  is  also  very  desirable  that  the  Burman  mission  should  be 
strengthened.  There  is  no  full  liberty  of  conscience,  and 
several  stations  might  be  occupied  ;  even  the  borders  of 
China  might  be  visited  from  that  country  if  an  easier  en- 
trance into  the  heart  of  the  country  could  not  be  found.  I 
have  not  mentioned  Sumatra,  Java,  the  Moluccas,  the 
Philippines,  or  Japan,  but  all  these  countries  must  be  sup- 
plied with  missionaries.  This  is  a  very  imperfect  sketch 
of  the  wants  of  Asia  only,  without  including  the  Moham- 
medan countries  ;  but  Africa  and  South  America  call  as 
loudly  for  help  and  the  greatest  part  of  Europe  must  also 
be  helped  by  the  Protestant  Churches,  being  nearly  as 
destitute  of  real  godliness  as  any  heathen  country  on  the 
earth.  What  a  pressing  call,  then,  is  there  for  labourers 
in  the  spiritual  harvest,  and  what  need  that  the  attention 
of  all  the  Churches  in  England  and  America  should  be 
drawn  to  this  very  object." 

Such  greatness  of  dream  and  desire  as  his  is  denied 
no  man.  And  all  men  may  have  his  dauntless  cour- 
age and  persistence  in  overcoming  difficulties.  He 
knew  little  else  in  his  early  years.  The  whole  en- 
terprise had  to  be  created.  And  he  had  no  resource, 
no  experience,  no  standing,  no  sympathy  and  sup- 
port in  his  own  family.  But  he  understood  that  ob- 
stacles exist  to  be  surmounted.  As  General  S.  C. 
Armstrong  said,  "What  are  Christians  in  the  world 
for  but  to  do  the  impossible  by  the  help  of  God  ? ' ' 
Carey  was  like  Armstrong  in  another  regard.  He 
was  a  child  all  his  days,  and  so  was  free  from  envy 
and  distrust,  and  jealous  meanness  and  all  malice. 
Cannot  every  man  remain  or  become  again  as  a  little 


92  WILLIAM   CAREY 

child  ?  Is  there  any  hope  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven 
for  men  who  cannot  ? 

But  childlikeness  was  joined  in  him  as  in  Arm- 
strong with  the  shrewdest  and  most  careful  judgment 
in  business  matters.  And  yet  it  was  not  so  much 
shrewdness  in  either  case  as  high  conscience.  The 
greatest  cleverness  is  always  righteousness.  Carey's 
views  as  to  the  expenditure  of  mission  money  will 
suffice  for  illustration.  He  was  giving  Mardon  and 
Chater  instructions  with  reference  to  their  mission  to 
Burmah.     He  spoke  of  the  language  : 

"  With  respect  to  the  Burman  language,  let  this 
occupy  your  most  precious  time  and  your  most  anx- 
ious solicitude.  Do  not  be  content  with  acquiring 
this  language  superficially,  but  make  it  your  own, 
root  and  branch.  To  become  fluent  in  it,  you  must 
attentively  listen  with  prying  curiosity  into  the  forms 
of  speech,  the  construction  and  accent  of  the  natives. 
Here  all  the  imitative  powers  are  wanted  ;  yet  these 
powers  and  this  attention,  without  continued  effort 
to  use  all  you  acquire,  and  as  fast  as  you  acquire  it, 
will  be  comparatively  of  little  use." 

And  he  went  on  later  to  add:  "In  prosecuting 
this  work,  there  are  two  things  to  which  especially 
we  would  call  your  very  close  attention,  viz., 
the  strictest  and  most  rigid  economy,  and  the  cul- 
tivation of  brotherly  love.  Eemember  that  the 
money  which  you  will  expend  is  neither  ours  nor 
yours,  for  it  has  been  consecrated  to  God  ;  and  every 
unnecessary  expenditure  will  be  robbing  God,  and 
appropriating  to  unnecessary  secular  uses  what  is 
sacred  and  consecrated  to  Christ  and  His  cause.  In 
building,  especially,  remember  that  you   are  poor 


THE  CHRISTIAN   PIONEER  93 

men,  and  have  chosen  a  life  of  poverty]and  self-denial, 
with  Christ  and  His  missionary  servants.  If  another 
person  is  profuse  in  expenditure,  the  consequence  is 
small  because  his  property  would  perhaps  fall  into 
hands  where  it  might  be  devoted  to  the  purpose  of 
iniquity  ;  but  missionary  funds  are  in  their  very  cir- 
cumstances the  most  sacred  and  important  of  anything 
of  this  nature  on  earth.  We  say  not  this,  brethren, 
because  we  suspect  you,  or  any  of  our  partners  in 
labour ;  but  we  perceive  that  when  you  have  done  all, 
the  Eangoon  mission  will  lie  heavy  upon  the  mission- 
ary funds,  and  the  field  of  exertion  is  very  wide."  The 
old  lesson  can  never  be  too  well  learned  that  all  such 
trust  funds  should  be  so  spent  that  the  use  to  which 
each  penny  is  put  will  bear  the  closest  scrutiny. 

Carey  says  that  in  the  matter  of  work,  he  had  to 
achieve  his  results  in  the  face  of  a  heavy  spirit  of  in- 
dolence. In  other  directions  also  he  was  obliged  to 
succeed  against  disabilities.  He  felt  his  social  limi- 
tations keenly  and  often  complained  of  himself  for 
what  he  called  his  misanthropy.^  He  was  so  humble 
and  unassuming  that  he  lacked  aggressive  tact.  He 
wanted  ease  and  elasticity  in  society.  All  this  he 
realized  and  yet  his  work  called  him  into  society  and 
he  knew  that  the  Sx)irit  of  God  could  enable  him  to 
meet  his  duty  there  as  well  as  in  less  conspicuous 
spheres.  He  followed,  himself,  the  advice  he  gave 
to  his  son  Jabez  when  he  went  to  Amboyna  :  "  Behave 
affably  and  genteelly  to  all,  but  not  cringingly  towards 
any.  Feel  that  you  are  a  man,  and  always  act  with 
dignified  sincerity  and  truth  which  will  command  the 
esteem  of  all.     Seek  not  the  society  of  worldly  men, 

•Belcher,  "  William  Carey,"  p.  254. 


94  WILLIAM   CAREY 

but  when  called  to  be  with  them,  act  and  converse 
with  propriety  and  dignity.  To  do  this,  labour  to 
gain  a  good  acquaintance  with  history,  geography, 
men,  and  things.  A  gentleman  is  the  next  best  char- 
acter after  a  Christian,  and  the  latter  includes  the 
former.  Money  never  makes  a  gentleman,  neither 
does  a  fine  appearance,  but  an  enlarged  understand- 
ing joined  to  engaging  manners."  Living  by  these 
principles,  himself,  Carey  associated  without  diffi- 
culty and  with  constant  usefulness  and  the  unfailing 
respect  and  regard  of  men  with  governor-generals, 
merchants,  scholars,  and  soldiers  and  "  was  ever  the 
saint  and  gentleman  whom  it  was  a  privilege  to 
know."  * 

These  characteristics  and  Carey's  success  illustrate 
the  great  truth  to  which  his  whole  life  testifies  that 
nothing  is  impossible  to  any  man  in  the  line  of  his 
duty.  Whether  the  hindrance  was  an  outer  obstacle 
or  an  inner  limitation,  Carey  conquered  it.  In  this, 
he  was  a  true  pioneer  of  missions,  and  young  men 
and  women  of  our  day  lose  a  great  deal  if  they  rest 
on  great  organizations  and  are  content  with  small 
routine  performances,  and  excuse  themselves  from 
the  successful  effort  to  achieve  the  impossible.  They 
are  no  worthy  followers  of  the  uneducated  cobbler, 
who  became  one  of  the  most  respected  scholars  and 
gentlemen  in  India. 

And  yet  Carey  was  in  India  just  what  he  was  in 
England.  Men  will  be  what  they  have  been.  He 
became  a  great  scholar  in  India  because  he  had  been 
an  earuest  student  at  home.  He  had  starved  himself 
to  buy  books.  Dutch  and  French  he  taught  himself. 
'Smith,  "  Life  of  William  Carey,"  p.  162. 


THE  CHRISTIAN   PIONEER  95 

"He  never  sat  on  his  stall  without  his  book  before 
him,  nor  did  he  painfully  toil  with  his  wallet  of  new 
made  shoes  to  neighbouring  towns  or  return  with 
leather,  without  conning  over  his  lately  acquired 
knowledge  and  making  it  forever  in  orderly  array 
his  own."  ^  This  is  far  superior  to  the  mere  form 
of  education  in  regular  institutions.  In  China  to- 
day two  of  the  best  speakers  of  Mandarin  are  men 
who  had  no  collegiate  training.  One  was  a  black- 
smith and  went  out  late  in  life.  But  they  were  men 
like  Carey  with  working  minds  and  the  power  of 
toil.  Carey  has  been  spoken  of  by  one  acquaintance 
at  least  as  easy  going.  He  had  said  to  this  friend, 
*'  Brother  Swan,  I  am  not  fitted  for  discipline.  I 
never  could  say  no,"  ^  and  his  kindliness  of  disposition 
was  notable  and  saved  him  from  attacks  made  upon 
his  associates.  But  he  did  not  lack  decision  and  posi- 
tiveness  of  character.  He  revealed  enough  of  it  in 
India  and  it  emerged  then  because  it  had  always 
been  in  him.  He  believed  in  effort  and  effort  on  the 
instant.  He  was  no  dilatory,  hesitant  man.  "When 
he  had  preached  his  great  sermon  at  Nottingham  in 
1792  and  though  every  one  was  moved,  the  meeting 
was  breaking  up  with  no  practical  action,  Carey 
seized  Fuller  by  the  hand  "in  an  agony  of  distress," 
and  asked  imploringly,  "Are  you  after  all  again 
going  to  do  nothing'?"  He  was  no  man  to  dawdle 
forever  over  duty.  He  believed  in  rising  from  sloth 
and  striking  when  the  hour  was  come. 

As  at  home  he  was  great  enough  to  be  kind  and 
unselfish  in  his  judgment,  so  he  remained.     He  was 

'  Smith,  "  Life  of  William  Carey,"  p.  23. 
*  Belcher,  "  William  Carey,"  p.  256. 


96  WILLIAM   CAREY 

enough  a  true  son  of  God  to  know  how  to  forgive. 
In  1810,  he  wrote  to  his  son  William,  who  in  the 
absence  of  the  pastor  of  a  church  had  excluded  two 
members,  with  the  result  of  coolness  on  the  part  of 
the  pastor,  who  deemed  his  rights  invaded  : 

"  I  advise  you  to  write  to  Mr.  Fernandez  immediately, 
and  acknowledge  that  you  did  wrong  in  proceeding  to  the 
exclusion  of  the  members  without  having  first  consulted 
with  him,  and  state  that  you  had  no  intention  of  hurting 
his  feelings,  but  acted  from  what  you  thought  the  urgency 
of  the  case,  and  request  of  him  a  cordial  reconciliation.  I 
should  like  much  to  see  a  copy  of  the  letter  you  send  to 
him.  I  have  no  object  in  view  but  the  good  of  the 
Church,  and  would  therefore  rather  see  you  stoop  as  low 
as  you  can  to  effect  a  reconciliation,  than  avoid  it  through 
any  little  punctilio  of  honour  or  feeling  of  pride.  You 
will  never  repent  of  having  humbled  yourself  to  the  dust 
that  peace  may  be  restored  ;  nothing  will  be  a  more  in- 
structive example  to  the  heathen  around  you,  nothing  will 
so  completely  subdue  Brother  Fernandez's  dissatisfaction 
and  nothing  will  make  you  more  respected  in  the  Church 
of  God." 

Only  true  Christian  men  can  write  such  counsel 
and  no  one  gives  it  who  does  not  try  to  practice  it. 
In  the  matter  of  such  humiliation  and  forgiveness 
there  is  little  hypocrisy  in  the  world.  It  was  the 
possession  of  this  spirit  that  carried  Carey  through 
all  the  bitter  experiences  of  his  missionary  life. 
Some  arose  from  changes  at  home,  new  men  suc- 
ceeding Fuller  and  the  older  men  who  had  held  the 
rope  from  the  beginning  :   some  from  changes  on 


THE  CHRISTIAN  PIONEER  97 

the  field,  difficulties  sometimes  arising  in  the  mission, 
but  Carey  came  through  all  unscathed,  because  he 
was  a  man  of  love  and  truth  and  forgiveness  who 
would  not  contend. 

This  would  suffice  as  testimony  to  his  greatness, 
but  there  are  other  evidences  more  familiar  to  the 
world  because  more  of  its  kind.  Even  in  the  world's 
measurements,  he  was  a  great  man.  He  was  great 
in  his  ability  as  a  scholar.  The  British  and  Foreign 
Bible  Society  recognized  this  in  the  minute  adopted 
at  his  death  : 

"  For  this  arduous  undertaking  (Bible  translation)  he 
was  qualified  in  an  extraordinary  degree  by  a  singular 
facility  in  acquiring  languages — a  faculty  which  he  had  at 
first  shown  and  cultivated  amidst  manifest  disadvantages 
in  the  retirement  of  humble  life.  The  subsequent  extent 
of  his  talent  as  well  as  of  his  diligence  and  zeal  may  be 
judged  of  by  the  fact  that,  in  conjunction  with  his  col- 
leagues, he  has  been  instrumental  in  giving  to  the  tribes 
of  Asia  the  sacred  Scriptures,  in  whole  or  in  part,  in  be- 
tween thirty  and  forty  languages." 

The  Asiatic  Society  of  Calcutta  adopted  the  follow- 
ing minute  : 

"  The  Asiatic  Society  cannot  note  on  their  proceedings 
the  death  of  Dr.  Carey,  so  long  an  active  member  and  orna- 
ment of  this  institution,  distinguished  alike  for  his  high 
attainments  in  the  original  languages,  for  his  eminent 
services  in  opening  the  stores  of  Indian  literature  to  the 
knowledge  of  Europe,  and  for  his  extensive  acquaintance 
with  the  sciences,  the  natural  history  and  botany  of  this 


98  WILLIAM   CAREY 

country,  and  his  useful  contributions  in  every  branch, 
towards  the  promotion  of  the  objects  of  the  society,  with- 
out placing  on  record  this  expression  of  their  high  sense 
of  his  value  and  merits  as  a  scholar  and  a  man  of  science, 
their  esteem  for  the  sterling  and  surpassing  religious  and 
moral  excellencies  of  his  character  and  their  sincere  grief 
for  irreparable  loss." 

He  was  more  than  a  scholar.  He  was  a  man 
of  practical  action.  He  accomplished  things.  He 
moved  men.  He  altered  social  conditions.  He  en- 
tered into  all  the  activities  of  life.  From  the  outset, 
he  was  interested  in  agriculture  and  industry.  He 
founded  the  Agricultural  Society  of  India.  He  was 
an  eminent  botanist  and  first  advocated  forestry  in 
India.  He  introduced  the  first  steam  engine  and  the 
manufacture  of  paper.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  of 
him  that  he  was  the  greatest  personal  force  outside 
of  the  government — and  probably  greater  than  any 
single  iu  dividual  force  in  the  direction  of  reform  and 
improvement.  No  one  did  more  than  he  towards 
the  uplifting  of  Indian  life — the  abolition  of  its 
wrongs,  the  elevation  of  the  character  of  English  in- 
fluence and  the  exaltation  of  Great  Britain's  ideas  of 
duty  towards  the  millions  of  India. 

Upon  the  Churches  at  home  his  reflex  influence 
was  incalculable.  When  he  went  out,  the  home 
Churches  were  not  only  indifferent,  they  were  hostile 
to  the  missionary  idea.  In  Scotland  the  Moderates 
openly  denounced  the  missionary  proposal.  In  Par- 
liament in  1793,  when  Wilberforce  advocated  the 
authorization  of  missions  in  connection  with  the  East 
India  Charter  act  and  proposed  clauses  to  this  effect, 


THE   CHRISTIAN   PIONEER  99 

they  were  rejected  and  in  the  House  of  Lords  the 
Bishop  of  St.  David's  questioned  the  right  of  any 
people  to  send  their  religion  to  any  other  nation. 
The  mission  of  Carey  put  an  end  to  this  attitude  on 
the  part  of  the  home  Churches,  and  the  modern  mis- 
sionary era  began,  an  era  in  which  each  branch  of 
the  Christian  Church  recognized  its  duty  to  help  to 
spread  Christianity  over  the  whole  world. 

Carey  never  returned  to  England.  His  idea  of 
missions  was  that  missionaries  should  go  out  to 
take  permanent  root  in  the  soil,  to  derive  their  sup- 
port thence  and  to  live  there  until  their  death. 
"The  Serampore  missionaries,"  says  Marshman's 
son,  ''  had  themselves  relinquished  every  idea  of  ever 
returning  to  England,  and  they  resolved  to  make 
India  not  only  their  own  home,  but  the  home  of  their 
families."  This  idea  of  permanent  stay  in  India  was 
entertained  by  Duff  also.  As  he  told  his  converts  in 
India  when  finally  leaving  them  for  home  :  "It  was 
when  a  student  at  college,  in  perusing  the  article  on 
India  in  Sir  David  Brewster's  '  Edinburgh  Encyclo- 
pedia,' that  my  soul  was  first  drawn  out  as  by  a  spell- 
like fascination  towards  India.  And  when,  at  a  later 
period,  I  was  led  to  respond  to  the  call  to  proceed  to 
India  as  the  first  missionary  ever  sent  forth  by  the 
Established  National  Church  of  Scotland,  my  resolu- 
tion was,  if  the  Lord  willed  it,  never,  never  to  return 
again."  '  Not  only  did  Carey  never  return  to  Eng- 
land, but  he  took  no  vacations  on  the  field.  Hill 
stations  for  vacation  purposes  had  not  been  opened 
then.  The  punkah  had  not  been  invented,  and  of 
course  there  was  no  ice.  Yet  Carey  stayed  at  his 
1  Smith,  "  Life  of  Duff,"  Vol.  I,  p.  43 f. 


lOO  WILLIAM   CAREY 

post  and  worked  for  over  forty  years.  It  is  not  nec- 
essary to  open  the  question  as  to  whether  his  plan  is 
preferable  to  the  present  one  of  frecxuent  furloughs. 
The  fact  that  the  best  missionaries  have  decided  in 
favour  of  the  latter  is  sufficient  evidence  in  its  favour. 
But  it  is  a  vital  question  as  to  how  the  manifest  evils 
of  the  present  system,  the  interruption  to  the  work, 
the  disarrangement  of  plans,  the  detachment  from  the 
people  inevitable  and  compensated  for  by  improved 
tone  and  vigour',  can  be  overcome.  If  men  have 
Carey's  spirit,  they  will  overcome  them.  With  that 
spirit  place  and  travel  matter  nothing.  The  will  of 
God  and  the  service  of  man  are  all.  But  how  can 
we  win  and  display  the  same  spirit  of  devotion  to 
these  high  ends  which  William  Carey  won  and  dis- 
played, when  he  went  forth  alone  into  Asia  and  for 
nearly  half  a  century  remained  there,  supporting 
himself  and  planting  new  missions  with  his  surplus 
earnings,  and  living  and  dying  for  the  evangeli- 
zation of  India  ?  In  some  way,  we  must  discover  and 
retain  the  secret  of  that  single  and  supreme  devotion. 
Or  has  the  mould  in  which  men  are  cast  to-day  con- 
tracted ?  Are  the  resources  in  God  which  were  open 
to  Carey  sealed  to  us?  Will  God  do  through  a  man 
to-day  in  a  world  of  deepened  need  and  richer  oppor- 
tunity what  He  did  through  the  plodding  cobbler 
who  changed  the  spirit  of  an  empire  and  retaught  the 
Church  the  nature  of  her  Gospel  and  the  glory  of  her 
mission?  Surely  He  will.  Surely  He  will  do  it 
through  us  if  we  will  give  Him  room. 


LECTURE  III 

ALEXANDER  DUFF,  THE 
CHRISTIAN  STUDENT  AND 
THE  WORLD'S  EDUCATION 


LECTURE  III 

ALEXANDER     DUFF,     THE     CHRISTIAN 

STUDENT  AND  THE  WORLD'S 

EDUCATION 

I  HAVE  already  associated  the  names  of  Carey 
and  Duff  as  men  who  wrought  together  at  the  es- 
tablishment of  Christianity  in  India,  and  who 
at  the  close  of  Carey's  life  and  the  beginning  of  Duff's 
met  personally  to  talk  of  what  they  were  doing. 
Alike  in  their  spirit  and  aim,  they  were  yet  of  com- 
pletely different  types  and  they  represented  on  one 
great  problem  of  missionary  effort  and  of  general 
educational  policy  if  not  divergent  views,  at  least 
dissimilar  proportions  of  emphasis. 

Duff  went  to  his  work  with  the  best  educational 
preparation.  From  Kirkmichael  School,  whose 
dominie  ^he  ever  remembered  with  love  and  to  whom 
he  sent  a  copy  of  every  book  and  pamphlet  which  he 
wrote,  and  then  from  the  grammar  school  of  Perth, 
he  went  up  to  St.  Andrews'  University,  where 
Chalmers  had  taken  the  chair  of  Moral  Philosophy 
just  in  time  to  impress  the  raw  power  of  this  Scotch 
boy.  ^'Though  outrageously  thoughtless,"  writes 
one  of  his  old  fellow  students,  "I  was  much  im- 
pressed by  Duff.  There  was  a  weight  and  a  down- 
right earnestness  about  him  which  everybody  felt. 
He  was  the  boast  of  the  college  and  was  greatly  re- 
garded by  the  townsfolk  of  St.  Andrews.     His  ap- 

103 


I04  ALEXANDER  DUFF 

pearauce  as  he  passed  with  hurried  step  is  indelibly 
photographed  on  my  mind,  and  is  thus  put  in  my 
'  Historical  Antiquities '  of  the  city,  '  That  tall  figure 
crossing  the  street  and  looking  thoughtfully  to  the 
ground,  stooped  somewhat  in  the  shoulders  and  his 
hand  awkwardly  grasping  the  lappet  of  his  coat,  is 
Alexander  Duff,  the  pride  of  the  college,  whose  mind 
has  received,the  impress  of  Chalmers'  big  thoughts  and 
the  form  of  his  phraseology.'  Under  Chalmers,  he 
was,  in  St.  Andrews,  the  institutor  of  Sabbath  schools 
and  the  originator  of  the  Students'  Missionary  So- 
ciety." *  This  society  was  a  sort  of  mission  study 
class.  Duff  was  librarian.  The  object  of  its  members 
was  "  to  study  foreign  missions  so  as  to  satisfy  them- 
selves of  the  necessities  of  the  world  outside  of  Chris- 
tendom" ;  and  it  numbered  at  least  three  beside 
Duff  who  offered  themselves  for  missionary  service. 

"William  Carey  had  himself  awakened  his  Church 
to  the  missionary  duty  and  to  the  willingness  to  send 
him.  Duff  found  his  Church  already  awakened  and 
went  out  in  response  to  its  direct  call. 

In  recommending  Duff  to  the  assembly,  the  com- 
mittee described  him  as  "  a  person  possessed  of  such 
talents  and  acquirements,  literary,  scientific,  and 
theological,  as  would  do  honour  to  any  station  in  the 
Church  ;  who  also  combines  with  these  the  prudence 
and  discretion  which  are  so  peculiarly  requisite  in 
the  discharge  of  the  duties  which  will  devolve  upon 
him ;  and  is,  at  the  same  time,  animated  with  such 
zeal  in  the  cause  to  which  he  devotes  himself,  as  to 
make  him  think  lightly  of  all  the  advantages  which 
he  foregoes  in  leaving  his  native  land."  These  words 
» Smith,  •'  Life  of  Duff,"  Vol.  I,  p.  23. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  STUDENT  I05 

inadequately  described  the  immense  force  whicli  was 
about  to  be  projected  iuto  India.  And  even  taken 
on  their  level,  they  omitted  one  consideration  on 
which  Duff  later  laid  emphasis  in  writing  home  re- 
garding some  recent  reinforcement : 

''He  does  not  appear  to  be  strong,  nor  capable  of 
undergoing  much  bodily  fatigue,  nor  exertion  in 
speech,  all  of  which  is  so  essential  to  the  active  dis- 
charge of  a  missionary's  duties.  I  wish  the  com- 
mittee would  bear  in  mind  that  a  constitutional 
vigour  of  body  is  just  as  requisite  as  a  vigorous  ac- 
tivity of  mind,  and  piety  and  learning.  Indeed  it  is 
not  studying  men  that  we  want,  but  hard-working 
men  who  have  been  and  still  are  students."  He  met 
his  own  requirements.  He  was  a  working  man  for 
forty -five  years,  and  he  wrought  with  the  energy  of 
a  torrent  that  never  subsides. 

Duff  instinctively  gave  himself  before  he  went  to 
India  to  the  deepening  of  the  missionary  interest  at 
home.  He  was  the  forerunner  in  this  of  the  host  of 
students  in  our  own  day  who  realize  that  they  ought  to 
produce,  before  they  go  out,  sufficient  increment  of  mis- 
sionary conscience  in  the  Church  at  home  to  provide 
for  the  increased  expense  involved  in  their  going. 
"With  intense  enthusiasm  and  power  Duff  pled  the 
cause,  and  his  natural  Scotch  reserve  never  resisted 
the  heat  of  his  heart  in  these  appeals.  In  the  old 
kirk  of  Leuchars,  he  exclaimed  :  ' '  There  was  a  time 
when  I  had  no  care  or  concern  for  the  heathen  ;  that 
was  a  time  when  I  had  no  care  or  concern  for  my  own 
soul.  When  by  the  grace  of  God  I  was  led  to  care 
for  my  own  soul,  then  it  was  I  began  to  care  for 
the  heathen  abroad.     In  my  closet,  on  my  bended 


I06  ALEXANDER   DUFF 

knees,  I  then  said  to  God,  '  O  Lord,  Thou  knowest 
that  silver  and  gold  to  give  to  this  cause  I  have  none  ; 
what  I  have  I  give  unto  Thee, — I  offer  Thee  myself, 
wilt  Thou  accept  the  gift  r  " 

Duff  was  married  before  going  out  to  India.  An 
old  friend  had  questioned  him  on  the  subject.  In  re- 
ply to  his  inquiry.  Duff  had  told  him  that  he  had 
beeu  studying  too  hard  to  think  of  such  things  and 
had  not  as  yet  met  any  one  whom  he  felt  he  could 
ask  to  go  with  him.  "Well,"  said  the  old  gentle- 
man, *'I  do  not  approve  of  young  men  fresh  from 
college  taking  wives  to  themselves  when  newly  mar- 
ried to  their  Church,  before  they  can  possibly  know 
the  requirements  of  their  work.  But  your  case  is 
wholly  different.  You  go  to  a  distant  region  of 
heathenism,  where  you  will  find  little  sympathy 
among  your  countrymen,  and  will  need  the  compan- 
ionship of  one  like-minded  to  whom  you  may  unbosom 
yourself.  My  advice  to  you  is  this,  be  quietly  on  the 
lookout;  and  if,  in  God's  providence,  you  make  the 
acquaintance  of  one  of  the  daughters  of  Zion,  travers- 
ing, like  yourself,  the  wilderness  of  this  world,  her 
face  set  thitherward,  get  into  friendly  converse  with 
her.  If  you  find  that  in  mind,  in  heart,  in  temper 
and  disposition  you  congenialize,  and  if  God  puts  it 
into  her  heart  to  be  willing  to  forsake  father  and 
mother  and  cast  in  her  lot  with  you,  regard  it  as  a 
tokea  from  the  God  of  providence  that  you  should 
use  the  proper  means  to  secure  her  Christian  society." 
Duff  acted  upon  this  counsel  and  his  wife  was  very 
different  from  the  wife  who  reluctantly  accompanied 
William  Carey  to  the  field. 

There  was  a  world  of  difference  also  in  the  man- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  STUDENT  107 

ner  of  their  going.  Things  had  changed  for  the 
better  in  India.  The  struggle  was  not  over,  but 
Christianity  was  not  the  outlawed  thing  it  had  been 
when  Carey  went.  Duff  had  letters  and  recommen- 
dations to  Lord  William  Bentinck,  the  Governor- 
General,  to  the  Earl  of  Dalhousie,  who  was  com- 
mander-in-chief of  the  Indian  armies,  and  to  other 
men  of  influence. 

On  May  27,  1830,  after  an  eight  months'  voyage, 
Duff  and  his  wife  reached  Calcutta  and  were  warmly 
welcomed,  the  Governor-General  inviting  him  to 
dinner  and  freely  encouraging  his  plans.  So  at  the 
age  of  twenty-four  the  young  Scotchman  began  his 
work. 

He  lost  no  time  in  beginning.  He  had  been  sent 
to  establish  an  educational  institution.  It  was  not  to 
be  in  Calcutta  but  in  the  country.  He  visited  all 
the  missionaries  in  or  near  Calcutta  and  at  once  de- 
cided that  the  decision  as  to  the  location  of  the  new 
college  was  wrong.  Calcutta  was  the  place  to  strike. 
The  next  question  was  as  to  the  character  of  his  insti- 
tution. There  were  already  a  few  colleges  in  Bengal. 
Fort  William  College  had  been  established  as  a  train- 
ing institution  for  the  civil  service  and  was  still  in 
existence,  though  its  work  was  confined  to  the  work 
of  teaching  languages  to  the  civilians  of  the  Bengal 
presidency  alone.  The  three  institutions  which  were 
in  the  class  with  Duffs  proposed  college  were  the 
Hindu  College,  the  Serampore  College  and  the 
Bishop's  College.  The  first  was  under  Hindu  aus- 
pices, though  aided  by  the  government,  which  ap- 
pointed a  visitor.  ' '  So  far  as  the  government  was 
concerned,"  Duff  testified  in  1853  to  a  committee  of 


Io8  ALEXANDER  DUFF 

the  House  of  Commons,  ' '  their  views  at  the  outset, 
with  regard  to  the  best  mode  of  communicating 
European  literature  and  science,  were  somewhat  pe- 
culiar and  contracted ;  in  other  words,  their  views 
seemed  to  be  that  whatever  of  European  literature  and 
science  might  be  conveyed  to  the  native  mind  should 
be  conveyed  chiefly  through  native  media,  that  is  to 
say,  the  learned  languages  of  India, — for  the  Mo- 
hammedans, Arabic  and  Persian  ;  and  for  the  Hin- 
dus, Sanskrit.  This  was  the  predominant  spirit  and 
intent  of  the  British  government."  Still,  English 
had  been  introduced  into  the  Hindu  College  and  it 
was  opening  up  Western  learning  to  the  Hindus. 
The  Bishop's  College  was  established  by  Bishop 
Middleton  in  Calcutta  in  imitation  of  the  Serampore 
College.  The  Serampore  College  was  distinctively 
Christian.  In  this  it  differed  from  the  Hindu  Col- 
lege which  was  secularist  and  obstructive.  It  taught 
English  and  Sanskrit  and  Arabic,  but  it  did  its  work 
in  the  vernaculars.  It  rej  ected  the  principle  of  Angli- 
cism which  Duff  took  up  and  it  was  also  too  far  from 
Calcutta  to  fill  the  need  in  the  city's  life  which,  as 
Duff  saw,  presented  him  his  great  opportunity. 

He  believed  thoroughly  in  the  use  of  education  as 
a  missionary  agency.  That  was  the  axiom  with 
which  he  had  come  to  India.  He  believed  in  it  be- 
cause of  its  general  destructive  power  in  dissolving 
error  and  of  its  general  illuminating  power  in  reveal- 
ing the  truth.  **  While  you  engage  in  directly  sepa- 
rating as  many  precious  atoms  from  the  mass  as  the 
stubborn  resistance  to  ordinary  appliances  can  ad- 
mit," he  said  to  missionaries  engaged  in  other  forms 
of  work,  "  we  shall,  with  the  blessing  of  God,  devote 


THE  CHRISTIAN  STUDENT  I09 

our  time  and  strength  to  the  preparing  of  a  mine, 
and  the  setting  of  a  train  which  shall  one  day  exjjlode 
and  tear  up  the  whole  from  its  lowest  depths."  Duff 
confidently  expected  his  educational  method  also  to 
produce  the  trained  leaders  who  would  do  among 
the  people  more  than  any  foreign  preacher  could  ever 
hope  to  accomplish.  But  Duff's  policy  was  not  only 
Christian  education  but  education  in  English.  In 
the  former  he  parted  from  the  Hindu  College,  which 
was  secularist,  and  even  worse,  teaching  Oriental  lit- 
erature and  Western  atheism.  In  the  latter  he  pur- 
sued a  different  course  from  the  Serampore  College, 
which  taught  English  but  proceeded  upon  a  vernac- 
ular basis. 

Duff  did  not  ignore  the  importance  of  the  vernacu- 
lar. He  explained  ' '  that  while  the  English  language 
would  thus  be  used  as  the  channel  of  conveying  all 
higher  and  improved  knowledge,  he  was  determined 
that  the  vernacular  should  be  thoroughly  taught  to 
the  pupils  at  the  same  time,  as  a  channel  of  distribu- 
tion for  the  masses."  No  one  was  allowed  to  begin 
English  who  could  not  read  with  ease  his  own  ver- 
nacular. This  new  study  of  the  vernacular  which 
Duff  introduced  had  two  results  of  vast  national  im- 
portance. *'It  tended,"  says  Dr.  Smith,  ''to  the 
enriching  of  the  vernacular  language  with  words,  and 
the  then  barren  literature  with  pure  and  often  spiritual 
ideas."  ^    Writing  later  Duff  said  : 

"I  saw  clearly  and  expressed  myself  strongly  to  the 
effect  that  ultimately,  in  a  generation  or  two,  the  Bengali, 
by  improvement,  might  become  the  fitting  medium  of  Eu- 
» Smith,  "  Life  of  Duff,"  Vol.  I,  p.  128. 


no  ALEXANDER   DUFF 

ropean  knowledge.  But  at  that  time  it  was  but  a  poor 
language,  like  English  before  Chaucer,  and  had  in  it, 
neither  by  translation  nor  original  composition,  no  works 
embodying  any  subjects  of  study  beyond  the  merest  ele- 
ments. As  a  native  of  the  Highlands,  I  vividly  realized 
the  fact  that  the  Gaelic  language,  though  powerful  for 
lyric  and  other  poetry  and  also  for  popular  address,  con- 
tained no  works  that  could  possibly  meet  the  objects  of  a 
higher  and  comprehensive  education.  Hence  those  who 
sought  that  found  it  in  English  colleges,  and  returned  as 
teachers  and  preachers  to  distribute  the  treasures  of  knowl- 
edge acquired  through  English  among  the  Gaelic  people." 

Yet  there  was  a  real  issue  between  the  Serampore 
plan  and  his.  At  Serampore  the  vernacular  and  not 
English  was  encouraged  and  used  as  the  medium  of 
education.  It  was  on  the  desire  for  English  that 
Duff  built  his  school,  and  he  deliberately  threw  all 
his  influence  to  increase  the  desire,  believing  that  the 
English  language  would  be  an  agency  of  disaster  to 
error  and  of  victory  to  the  truth. 

These  were  the  young  missionary's  plans.  At  the 
age  of  twenty-four  he  was  to  attempt  single-handed 
their  realization.  His  school  instantly  became  im- 
mensely popular.  The  young  teacher  proved  to  be  a 
genius,  a  man  of  fascination  and  of  resistless  power. 
One  of  his  pupils  has  described  his  first  sight  of  him 
in  the  year  1834  : 

"  It  was  about  a  month  after  I  had  been  admitted  into 
the  institution  that  I  caught  a  near  view  of  the  illustrious 
missionary.  He  came  into  the  class  room  while  we  were 
engaged  in  reading  the  first  page  of  the  *  First  Instructor,' 


THE   CHRISTIAN   STUDENT  III 

— the  first  of  a  series  of  class  books  compiled  by  himself; 
and  though  forty- four  years  have  elapsed  since  the  occur- 
rence of  the  incident,  my  recollection  of  it  is  as  vivid  as  if 
it  had  happened  only  yesterday.  I  cannot  say  he  walked 
into  the  class  room — he  rushed  into  it,  his  movements  in 
those  days  being  exceedingly  rapid.  He  was  dressed  all 
in  black  and  wore  a  beard.  He  scarcely  stood  still  for  a 
single  second,  but  kept  his  feet  and  hands  moving  inces- 
santly, like  a  horse  of  high  mettle.  He  seemed  to  have 
more  life  in  him  than  most  men.  He  had  his  white  pocket 
handkerchief  in  his  hand,  which  he  was  every  now  and 
then  ^tying  round  his  arm,  and  twisting  into  a  thousand 
shapes.  He  seemed  to  be  a  living  personation  of  perpet- 
ual motion.  ...  In  our  lesson  there  occurred  the 
word  *  ox  ' ;  he  took  hold  of  that  word  and  catechized  us 
on  it  for  half  an  hour.  He  then  left  our  class  and  went 
into  another,  leaving  in  our  minds  seeds  of  future  thoughts 
and  reflection.  Such  is  my  earliest  recollection  of  Alex- 
ander Duff."  ^ 

To  such  a  teacher  and  his  school  pupils  began  to 
throng. 

"Throughout  the  whole  progress  of  these  prepara- 
tory arrangements,"  Mr.  Duff  afterwards  wrote, 
' '  the  excitement  among  the  natives  continued  un- 
abated. They  pursued  us  along  the  streets.  They 
threw  open  the  very  doors  of  our  palankeen,  and 
poured  in  their  supplications  with  a  pitiful  earnest- 
ness of  countenance  that  might  have  softened  a  heart 
of  stone.  .  .  .  Such  was  the  continued  press  of 
new  candidates  that  it  was  found  absolutely  necessary 
to  issue  small  written  tickets  for  those  who  had  sue- 
'  Day,  "  Recollectioua  of  Alexander  Duff,"  pp.  49-51. 


112  ALEXANDER  DUFF 

ceeded  ;  and  to  station  two  men  at  the  outer  door  to 
admit  only  those  who  were  of  the  selected  number." 

Under  DufiPs  personality,  the  method  he  had  devised 
was  doing  its  work.  The  students  drank  in  his  spirit 
and  as  they  went  about  made  but  little  effort  to  con- 
ceal the  change  of  opinion  through  which  he  had  led 
them.  "  At  length,  this  undaunted  bearing  and 
freedom  of  speech  began  to  create  a  general  ferment 
among  the  staunch  adherents  of  the  old  faith.  The 
cry  of  'Hinduism  in  danger'  was  fairly  raised." 
Orthodox  Hinduism  resisted.  The  Bengali  paper 
Chundrika,  which  had  been  established  to  resist  the 
proposal  that  the  government  should  deprive  Hindu- 
ism of  the  privilege  of  burning  living  widows,  had 
opened  war  on  the  college.  The  effects  were  insig- 
nificant. The  institution  was  now  solidly  established 
and  its  success  was  already  talked  of  far  and  near. 

Duff  followed  up  this  success  at  once.  He  per- 
ceived the  great  opportunity  there  was  for  aggressive 
effort  to  reach  the  large  body  of  men  in  Calcutta 
whose  faith  in  the  old  Hinduism  had  been  destroyed 
but  who  had  nothing  in  its  place.  The  Hindu  col- 
lege had  produced  in  its  students  a  mass  of  infidelity 
regarding  ''all  religious  principles  whatever."  Its 
students  read  licentious  English  plays  and  Paine' s 
"  Age  of  Eeason  "  was  one  of  the  books  constantly 
referred  to.  The  conditions  appalled  the  orthodox 
Hindus  and  the  government  alike.  Yet  they  were 
the  legitimate  fruitage  of  their  secular  education. 
Duff  faced  the  situation  undismayed.  ""We  re- 
joiced," he  wrote,  "in  June,  1830,  when,  in  the  me- 
tropolis of  British  India,  we  fairly  came  in  contact  with 
a  rising  body  of  natives,  who  had  learned  to  think 


THE   CHRISTIAN   STUDENT  II3 

and  to  discuss  all  subjects  with  unshackled  freedom, 
though  that  freedom  was  ever  apt  to  degenerate  into 
license  in  attempting  to  demolish  the  claims  and  pre- 
tensions of  the  Christian  as  well  as  every  other  pro- 
fessedly revealed  faith.  We  hailed  the  circumstance 
as  indicating  the  approach  of  a  period  for  which  we 
had  waited  long  and  prayed.  "We  hailed  it  as  herald- 
ing the  dawn  of  an  auspicious  era, — an  era  that  in- 
troduced something  new  into  the  hitherto  undisturbed 
reign  of  a  hoary  and  tyrannous  antiquity." 

A  course  of  public  lectures  was  arranged  to  meet 
this  situation.  Mr.  Hill,  a  Congregationalist,  was  to 
open  the  course  with  a  lecture  on  the  moral  qualifi- 
cations necessary  for  investigating  truth.  That  was 
the  only  lecture  given.  The  furore  caused  by  the 
idea  that  students  of  the  Hindu  College  had  attended 
a  lecture  on  Christianity  at  a  missionary's  house  led 
to  a  prohibition  that  such  students  should  attend  any 
"  political  and  religious  discussion,"  and  rather  than 
imperil  his  plans.  Duff  gave  up  the  course. 

He  soon  projected  another,  however ;  this  time  to 
men  whom  no  such  prohibition  could  reach,  and 
weekly  from  forty  to  sixty  men  listened  to  Duff's 
great  arguments  and  appeals.  It  was  in  the  days 
when  intellectual  interests  were  few  in  India,  before 
the  government  service  had  been  made  accessible  to 
natives,  before  the  telegraph,  before  the  flood  of 
Western  literature.  The  minds  of  the  people  were 
jnst  opening  and  Duff  had  a  clear  field.  The  result 
was  that  four  of  those  who  heard  him  in  the  course 
responded  to  his  appeal  and  were  baptized.  They 
attached  themselves  to  different  churches,  but  Duff 
found  no  fault  with  that.     He  never  proselytized 


114  ALEXANDER  DUFF 

himself  and  he  cared  little  to  what  church  converts 
joined  themselves.  Years  later,  he  declared:  "I 
would  as  soon  leap  into  the  Ganges  as  go  near 
Tinuevelli,  except  as  a  brother  to  see  the  good  work 
that  is  going  on."  And  at  the  Conference  in  New 
York  he  declared  :  "If  for  a  moment  I  could  wield 
the  wand  of  despotic  power  for  a  good  purpose,  I 
would  go  to  the  heathen  field  and  there  chalk  out  a 
separate  district  for  every  evangelical  denomination. 
I  would  say  to  the  Baptist,  do  you  go  there ;  to  the 
Episcopalian,  take  this  field ;  to  the  Presbyterian, 
labour  in  that  district ;  go  and  convert  them,  and 
then  baptize  them  all  in  whatever  way  you  think 
best." 

Indeed,  he  was  prepared  to  carry  his  ideas  of  mis- 
sionary comity  much  further  and  hoped  to  see  a 
closer  measure  of  cooperation  in  educational  work. 
He  proposed  to  a  missionary  conference  in  Calcutta 
a  plan  by  which  he  would  take  the  best  pupils  of  the 
various  missions  and  for  a  fee  of  ten  shillings  a  month 
give  them  the  highest  Christian  education,  but  home 
divisions  prevented  such  cooperation  upon  the  field, 
and  various  colleges  came  into  existence,  when  one 
more  powerful  institution  would  have  sufficed. 

This  method  of  argumentative  lectures  was  kept 
up  for  years  by  Duff  and  his  associates.  It  was  a 
new  method.  The  audiences  had  just  been  created 
and  the  experience  of  such  discussions  was  novel  to 
them.  The  alternatives  presented  to  their  minds 
were  limited  to  orthodox  Hinduism,  evangelical 
Christianity,  a  Hindu  TJnitarianism,  and  atheism. 
The  alternatives  of  scientific  scepticism,  agnosticism, 
and  an  ethical  theistic  faith  were  not  present.     It 


THE   CHRISTIAN   STUDENT  II5 

was  as  it  was  later  in  Japan.  Christianity  came  into 
the  field  at  a  time  when  old  positions  were  untenable 
and  before  the  new  positions  in  which  men  satisfy 
themselves  in  the  West  outside  of  the  Christian 
Churches  had  become  known.  There  is  room  for 
such  discussion  to-day.  It  is  going  on  all  the  time 
and  its  form  is  often  just  what  it  was  in  Duff's  day, 
but  the  range  of  the  discussion  is  immensely  wider 
and  more  difScult. 

It  is  worth  noting  in  passing  that  some  at  least 
seem  to  have  been  drawn  to  Duff's  institution  be- 
cause it  was  cheaper  than  the  others.  Nothing,  how- 
ever, was  allowed  to  subordinate  in  Duff's  view  the 
supreme  aim  of  his  school.  Mr.  Day  says  that  in 
spite  of  the  advantage  of  the  economy  of  education 
at  Duff's  institution,  'Hhere  was  one  serious  draw- 
back. Mr.  Daff  was  a  most  zealous  missionary  ;  he 
made  no  secret  of  it,  but  publicly  avowed  that  his 
chief  object  in  setting  up  the  institution  was  to  in- 
struct Hindu  youth  in  the  principles  of  the  Christian 
religion."  Attendance  at  the  Bible  classes  was 
rigorously  required.  Parents  also  were  invited  to 
listen  to  the  hour's  preaching  to  the  boys  each  day. 
He  believed  in  making  the  Bible  itself  ''not  only 
the  principal  book  but  to  bestow  upon  the  teaching 
of  it  the  largest  measure  of  their  time  and  attention, 
so  long  as  this  could  be  done  without  occasioning 
that  desertion  of  pupils  which  the  more  successful 
prosecution  of  general  literature  and  science  in  other 
native  seminaries  must  inevitably  insure,  if  there 
be  not  a  correspondent  progress  in  such  studies  in 
the  mission  seminaries."  ^  His  aim  was  nothing 
» Smith,  "  Life  of  Duff,"  Vol.  I,  p.  422. 


Il6  ALEXANDER  DUFF 

superficial  or  seini-religious.  It  was  something 
definite  and  decided.  In  protesting  against  tlie 
idea  that  the  institution  would  be  a  mere  school  for 
young  boys,  he  wrote  : 

"If  it  is  to  continue  a  mere  school,  then  I  say  that 
all  the  time,  money  and  labour  hitherto  expended  on 
it  have  been  thrown  away  for  nought.  Instead  of 
being  an  apparatus  which  God  might  bless  as  the 
means  of  leading  heathens  to  the  way  of  salvation 
through  Christ,  it  would  be  much  more  likely  to 
become  a  machine  for  transforming  superstitious 
idolaters  into  rogues  and  infidels." 

But  were  Duff's  desires  and  expectations  ever  re- 
alized ?  Did  higher  English  education  as  a  mission- 
ary method  accomplish  the  results  he  hoped  for? 
(1)  He  conceived  that  he  was  preparing  a  mine  and 
setting  a  train  which  would  one  day  explode  and  tear 
up  the  whole  of  Hinduism.  But  it  has  proved,  not  a 
destructive  mine,  but  a  transforming  suffusion.  Hin- 
duism is  not  destroyed.  It  is  adjusted.  The  reform 
movements  of  Ram  Mohun  Eoy  and  Debendranath 
Tagore  and  Keshub  Chunder  Sen  ceased  as  a  move- 
ment of  separation  from  Hinduism.  The  old  elastic 
system  has  simply  once  again  opened  to  take  back 
these  elements  of  dissent  and  now  makes  room  within 
itself  for  what  in  Duff's  day  found  no  comfortable 
abiding  place  there.  "  Only  use  English  as  the 
medium,"  said  Duff,  ''  and  you  will  break  the  back- 
bone of  caste."  This  was  seventy  years  ago.  The 
backbone  of  caste  seems  almost  as  rigid  as  it  has  ever 
been.  (2)  Knowledge  alone  does  not  inevitably  des- 
troy error.  Duff  did  not  see  how  men  could  continue 
to  believe  or  practice  fiilsehood  when  they  knew  that 


THE  CHRISTIAN  STUDENT  II7 

it  was  falsehood.  But  to  know  the  truth,  intellectu- 
ally, is  not  to  abandon  the  antagonistic  error,  espe- 
cially in  India,  where  as  Mr.  Meredith  Townseud 
contends,  one  of  the  characteristics  of  the  Hindu 
mind  has  been  the  failure  to  see  any  inconsistency  or 
contradiction  in  a  life  lived  in  moral  antagonism  to 
Intellectual  opinion.  Education  does  not  necessarily 
destroy  superstition.  It  has  undoubtedly  done  so  in 
many  minds  in  India.  That  has  been  its  net  result 
but  that,  as  Duff  contended  and  as  we  shall  see,  is  a 
very  inadequate  achievement.  (3)  The  use  of  Eng- 
lish has  accomplished  something  of  what  Duff  hoped 
and,  as  he  foresaw,  some  of  the  first  opposition  to  its 
use  has  disappeared.  It  was  urged  that  to  teach  it 
would  be  merely  to  supply  rogues.  Young  men 
would  learn  enough  of  it  to  put  to  use  in  some  dis- 
creditable or  small  commercial  way  and  then  they 
would  leave.  Missions  face  that  difficulty  now  in 
China.  Duflf  replied  that  this  difficulty  would  soon 
take  care  of  itself,  that  the  market  for  such  men 
would  soon  be  overstocked  and  that  then  those  who 
wished  to  obtain  better  positions  would  have  to  re- 
main longer.  It  is  a  long  and  expensive  process, 
however,  to  overstock  the  market.  (4)  The  history 
of  Duff's  policy  suggests  that  it  is  not  education  as 
such  which  makes  men  Christian  or  indeed  in  any 
large  number  prepares  them  for  the  acceptance  of 
other  influences,  which  will  make  them  Christians. 
Character  is  more  a  matter  of  feeling  and  will,  of  the 
personality,  than  of  opinion.  Opinion  enters  and 
to  the  extent  that  it  does  so,  all  processes  which  affect 
opinion  affect  character,  but  men  are  not  simple 
thinking-machines,  and  they  do  not  always  see  truth 


Il8  ALEXANDER  DUFF 

when  it  is  presented,  or  recognize  it  when  they  see  it, 
or  embrace  it  when  they  recognize  it.  To  teach 
them  the  truth  is  a  duty  and  a  service,  but  it  can 
only  accomplish  its  full  measure  of  good  when  to 
the  intellectual  presentation  of  truth  are  added  the 
vital  personal  forces,  which  affect  the  whole  per- 
sonality and  get  for  the  truth  a  living  acceptance. 
Duff's  plan  included  the  most  powerful  and  per- 
sistent use  of  all  these  personal  influences.  He  used 
them.  * '  As  the  chief  obj  ect  of  the  General  Assembly' s 
Institution,"  says  Mr.  Day,  "was  to  convert  the 
students  to  Christianity,  the  course  of  studies  pursued 
in  it  was  thoroughly  saturated  with  the  spirit  of  that 
religion  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest  class."  And 
Duff  poured  out  his  own  life  among  the  students 
in  his  zeal  for  their  direct  conversion.  There  was 
no  concealment  of  his  purpose,  no  indirectness, 
no  justification  of  his  work  by  secondary  conse- 
quences. The  result  appeared  in  such  actual  con- 
versions  of  young  men  as  we  do  not  see  to-day  in 
Calcutta.  The  same  change  has  been  witnessed 
in  Madras.  In  the  different  missionary  institutions 
in  Madras,  Dr.  John  Murdock  says  there  were  thirty- 
nine  baptisms  in  1852-1856,  ten  baptisms  in  1856- 
1861,  five  in  1862-1866,  and  one  in  1867-1871. 
What  produced  this  change  ?  For  one  thing,  un- 
questionably the  conditions  have  altered  greatly,  so 
that  students  who  hold  Christian  opinions  can  now 
remain  in  Hinduism  without  discomfort.  They  are 
not  Hindus,  but  they  feel  no  necessity  of  leaving 
Hinduism  to  become  real  Christians.  For  another 
thing,  there  is  not  the  same  consuming  eagerness  to 
make  converts.     Men  go  out  to  teach  in  missionary 


THE  CHRISTIAN  STUDENT  II9 

educational  institutions  who  do  not  work  for  the 
conversion  of  students  as  Duff  and  his  associates 
worked,  who  say  that  the  burden  of  their  other  work 
makes  it  impossible  for  them  to  do  so.  Mr.  Day 
recognizes  also  the  change  that  has  passed  over  such 
institutions  as  Duff's  in  the  matter  of  the  supremacy 
of  their  distinct  missionary  aim,  due  to  the  influence 
of  the  government  educational  system,  for  whose 
degrees  the  missionary  institutions  prepare  their 
students  : 

"As  missionaries  prepare  their  students  for  the  degrees 
of  the  university,  they  adopt  the  curriculum  of  studies 
prescribed  by  that  learned  body ;  they  have,  therefore,  at 
present,  less  time  for  the  Christian  and  theological  training 
of  their  pupils  than  before ;  while  the  students  themselves 
naturally  pay  Httle  or  no  attention  to  those  studies  which 
do  not  pay  in  the  university  examination.  The  state  of 
things  was  different,  however,  in  the  pre-university  days 
of  which  I  am  now  speaking.  The  students  were  in  those 
days  thoroughly  grounded  in  a  course  of  natural  theology, 
a  course  of  the  evidences  of  Christianity,  a  course  of  sys- 
tematic theology,  a  short  course  of  ecclesiastical  history, 
besides  a  course  of  lectures  on  almost  the  whole  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures,  from  the  Book  of  Genesis  to  the  Book  of 
Revelation."  * 

Connection  with  the  government  system  has  its 
advantages.  It  secures  certain  grants  in  aid.  It 
brings  students  to  the  mission  colleges  who  would  not 
come  unless  their  course  made  them  eligible  to  gov- 
ernment degrees  and  so  to  political  office.  It  ensures 
1  Day,  "Recollections  of  Alexander  Duff,"  p.  138. 


I20  ALEXANDER  DUFF 

a  high  standard  of  educational  \rork.  But  in  many 
cases,  it  does  involve  a  subordination  of  the  distinctly 
evangelistic  purpose  of  missionary  education.  It  has 
done  this  so  certainly  that  some  leading  missionary 
educators  have  dropped  Duff's  religious  emphasis 
and  justify  their  work  on  grounds  wholly  apart  from 
its  direct  influence  in  making  men  Christians  and 
leading  them  to  baptism. 

There  was  no  such  government  educational  system 
when  Duff  came  to  India.  In  its  creation  and  the 
determination  of  some  main  features  of  its  character, 
Duff  exercised  a  great  influence.  Duff  began  his 
work  in  India  j  ust  as  the  long  struggle  for  a  recog- 
nition of  England's  duty  to  the  moral  and  intellectual 
life  of  India  was  ending.  At  each  renewal  of  the 
East  India  Company's  charter  since  1783,  there  had 
been  agitation  as  to  the  character  of  the  company's 
rule,  and  the  charter  of  1833  completed  its  trans- 
formation. It  destroyed  the  last  element  of  a  trading 
concern  in  the  company  and  made  it  a  purely  govern- 
ing body.  It  removed  the  last  obstruction  to  the 
work  of  the  missionary  and  to  the  free  movement 
and  activity  of  all  foreigners.  And  it  recognized  the 
duty  of  the  company  to  provide  for  the  education 
and  improvement  of  the  people  of  India.  The  old 
era  of  subordination  of  Western  standards  and  ideals 
to  Hindu  superstition  and  immorality  was  over, 
though  it  required  the  shock  of  the  Mutiny  to  com- 
plete the  transformation.  But  the  question  which 
now  arose  was  as  to  the  form  of  the  educational 
schemes  which  should  be  undertaken.  As  has  been 
already  pointed  out,  there  were  three  schools  of 
opinion  :  (1)  The  Orientalists,  who  believed  in  teach- 


THE   CHRISTIAN   STUDENT  121 

ing  the  people  their  own  literature  and  perpetuating 
the  iguoa'auce  and  sux)erstitiou  of  the  past,  its  false 
science  and  geography  and  its  moral  and  philo- 
sophical error ;  (2)  the  Vernacularists,  who  oc- 
cupied the  middle  ground  of  the  Serampore  College, 
who  taught  English  but  laid  chief  emphasis  on  the 
development  of  the  vernaculars,  the  translation  of 
proper  books  into  them  and  their  use  as  the  chief 
instrument,  and  (3)  the  Anglicists  who  indeed  made 
use  of  the  vernacular  as  Duff  did,  but  laid  the  chief 
emphasis  on  English  because  it  made  available  a 
literature  not  accessible  in  the  vernacular,  was  it- 
self an  instrument  of  enlightenment  and  an  agency 
of  the  truth,  was  the  language  of  the  government 
and  so  useful  politically  as  a  means  of  communication 
and  as  a  bond  of  union,  and  would  as  a  silent  in- 
fluence operate  to  the  accomplishment  of  the  ends  of 
improvement  contemplated  by  the  new  charter. 

The  third  party  prevailed.  Its  victory  was  due  to 
three  young  men.  The  first  was  Duff,  who  was  now 
twenty-seven  years  of  age  and  who  had  demonstrated 
in  his  institution  the  value  and  success  of  the  method 
advocated  by  the  Anglicists.  The  second  was  Tre- 
velyan,  a  young  man  of  twenty-eight  whose  character 
and  abilities  and  fearlessness  of  principle  had  made 
him  already  one  of  the  foremost  men  in  India.  The 
third  was  Macaulay,  who  was  thirty-three  and  who 
had  been  the  chief  factor  in  securing  the  new  charter 
and  wa8  now  in  India  as  the  law  member  of  the 
Governor-General's  Council.  Trevelyan  knew  of 
Duffs  work  and  had  heartily  accepted  his  principles 
and  through  him  Duff's  view  came  to  expression  in 
the  famous  minute  of  Macaulay  which  established  and 


122  ALEXANDER   DUFF 

determined  the  new  educational  policy  of  England 
in  India.  Trevelyan  subsequently,  after  half  a 
century,  acknowledged  Duffs  predominant  influence. 

But  ignorance  and  falsehood  do  not  die  easily. 
The  teaching  of  English  produced  no  such  results  as 
Macaulay  dreamed  of.  It  has  bred  much  deism,  little 
Christianity,  and  very  much  of  what  the  Allahabad 
Pioneer  calls  "  fetichism  in  patent  leather  boots." 
And  its  influence  has  also  been  far  reaching  for  good. 
It  has  penetrated  the  educated  mind  of  India  with 
Christian  conceptions.  But  popular  Hinduism  is 
not  dead  and  it  remains  to  be  seen  whether  several 
centuries  of  English  teaching,  resulting  some  day  in 
making  India  a  practically  English-speaking  land, 
will  present  the  phenomenon  of  an  English-speaking 
country  worshipping  idols  and  phallic  symbols  and 
cows,  in  the  language  of  the  English  Bible  and  Milton 
and  Shakespeare. 

But  DuflTs  ideal  was  not  an  ideal  of  English  teach- 
ing alone.  He  did  believe  that  teaching  English 
would  destroy  error  and  caste,  but  it  was  only  by 
accompanying  it  with  a  powerful  positive  teaching 
of  religious  truth  in  English.  The  new  education  in 
India,  however,  was  to  be  absolutely  neutral  in  the 
matter  of  religion.  As  a  matter  of  fact  it  was  not 
neutral.  It  refrained  from  teaching  Christianity, 
but  it  substantially  allowed  the  teaching  of  Hinduism 
and  Islam.  Even  the  Mutiny  did  not  make  it  wholly 
neutral.  Atheism  and  agnosticism  have  been  freely 
taught  where  Christianity  has  been  barred.  But 
against  even  a  purely  neutral  system.  Duff  made 
earnest  protest. 

The  first  and  last  paragraphs  of  the  decree  of  the 


THE   CHRISTIAN   STUDENT  I23 

Governor-General  in  which  the  new  policy  was 
announced  were  as  follows  : 

**His  Lordship  in  Council  is  of  opinion  that  the 
great  object  of  the  British  government  ought  to  be 
the  promotion  of  European  literature  and  science 
among  the  natives  of  India,  and  that  all  the  funds 
appropriated  for  the  purposes  of  education  would  be 
best  employed  on  English  education  alone.     .     .     . 

"  His  Lordship  in  Council  directs  that  all  the  funds 
which  these  reforms  will  leave  at  the  disposal  of  the 
committee  be  henceforth  employed  in  imparting  to 
the  native  population  a  knowledge  of  English  litera- 
ture and  science  through  the  medium  of  the  English 
language ;  and  his  Lordship  in  Council  requests  the 
committee  to  submit  to  government,  with  all  expe- 
dition, a  plan  for  the  accomplishment  of  this  purpose." 

The  educational  system  was  to  be  thoroughly 
English.  In  this  Duff  heartily  concurred.  He  de- 
clared his  belief  in  it  as  a  wise  practical  expedient. 
It  was  what  he  had  striven  for  and  what  now,  due 
in  large  measure  to  his  influence,  was  settled.  But 
Duff  was  fundamentally  and  immovably  opposed  to 
the  exclusion  of  religious  teaching  from  the  govern- 
ment schools.  In  his  first  missionary  oration  before 
the  General  Assembly  after  returning  to  Scotland  in 
1835,  he  referred  to  this  matter,  urging  the  political 
inexpediency  of  the  government's  plan  of  purely 
secular  education  : 

*'  If  in  that  land  you  do  give  the  people  knowledge 
without  religion,  rest  assured  that  it  is  the  greatest 
blunder,  politically  speaking,  that  ever  was  com- 
mitted. Having  free  unrestricted  access  to  the  whole 
range  of  our  English  literature  and  science,  they  will 


124  ALEXANDER   DUFF 

despise  and  reject  tlieir  own  absurd  systems  of  learn- 
ing. Once  driven  out  of  their  own  systems,  they 
will  inevitably  become  infidels  in  religion.  And 
shaken  out  of  the  mechanical  routine  of  their  own 
religious  observances,  without  moral  principle  to 
balance  their  thoughts  or  guide  their  movements, 
they  will  as  certainly  become  discontented,  restless 
agitators, — ambitious  of  power  and  official  distinc- 
tion, and  possessed  of  the  most  disloyal  sentiments 
towards  that  government,  which,  in  their  eye,  has 
usurped  all  the  authority  that  rightfully  belonged  to 
themselves.  This  is  not  theory,  it  is  a  statement  of 
fact.  I  myself  can  testify  in  this  place,  as  I  have 
already  done  on  the  spot,  that  expressions  and 
opinions  of  a  most  rebellious  nature  have  been  known 
to  drop  from  some  of  the  very  prot^g^s  of  that 
government,  which,  for  its  own  sake,  is  so  infatuated 
as  to  insist  on  giving  knowledge  apart  from  religion." 
The  policy  of  the  British  government  in  India  in 
the  matter  of  neutrality  in  its  educational  system  it 
is  easy  to  understand.  Historically,  it  is  an  inherit- 
ance from  the  old  East  India  Company  days.  Then 
the  company  distinctly  discouraged  Christianity  and 
subsidized  idolatry.  When  later,  this  became  im- 
possible, the  government  ceased  the  "endorsement 
of  error"  as  Duff  called  it  but  proceeded  upon  the 
theory  of  a  colourless  religious  influence.  And  of 
course,  the  idea  of  purely  secular  education,  neutral 
as  to  all  religion,  is  a  commonplace  idea  with  us  in 
America,  where  some  states  have  even  forbidden  the 
Bible  or  anything  Christian  in  the  schools.  Now 
apart  from  what  can  be  said  about  such  a  policy  in 
America,  three  things  are  to  be  said  about  it  in 


THE  CHRISTIAN   STUDENT  1 25 

India.  (1)  The  idea  of  an  education  religiously 
neutral  is  delusive.  As  Duff  said  in  his  speech  to 
the  General  Assembly  in  1835,  "Do  then  let  me 
crave  the  attention  of  this  venerable  court  to  the 
grand  peculiarity,  that  if  in  India  you  only  impart 
ordinary  useful  knowledge,  you  thereby  demolish 
what  by  its  people  is  regarded  as  sacred.  A  course 
of  instruction  that  professes  to  convey  truth  of  any 
kind  thus  becomes  a  species  of  religious  education  in 
such  a  land — all  education  being  there  regarded  as 
religious  or  theological."  To  teach  the  truth  about 
geography  is  to  destroy  some  of  the  Hindu  theology. 
On  the  other  hand,  to  teach  agnostic  philosophy  or 
materialism  is  to  assail  Christianity.  Both  of  these 
things  were  done  in  Indian  schools.  (2)  No  public 
sentiment  in  India  demanded  such  a  course.  In- 
deed, the  idea  was  wholly  novel.  As  a  statement  to 
one  of  the  viceroys  by  the  Home  Department  in 
1872  declared:  "That  most  remarkable  feature  in 
Indian  education,  the  religious  neutrality  of  the 
government,  is  no  doubt  a  relic  of  the  extreme  ap- 
prehension which  prevailed  in  1793,  and  whether  its 
original  declaration  was  a  wise  one  or  not  is  far  too 
deep  and  many  sided  a  question  to  be  discussed  here. 
"We  must  accept  the  fact  as  we  find  it.  But  it  is,  I 
believe,  absolutely  without  precedent  or  parallel  else- 
where, besides  being  entirely  opposed  to  the  tradi- 
tional idea  of  education  current  in  the  East." 
(3)  The  results  are  calamitous.  The  statement  just 
quoted  refers  anxiously  to  this  fact  and  during  the 
Mutiny,  Duff  urged  that  England  should  learn  from 
it  the  futility  of  her  secular  agencies  for  reforming 
the  character  of  a  people  : 


126  ALEXANDER   DUFF 

"Railways  and  telegraphs  and  irrigating  canals,"  he 
wrote,  "and  other  material  improvements,  alone  will  not 
do.  Mere  secular  education,  sharpening  the  intellect,  and 
leaving  the  heart  a  prey  to  all  the  foulest  passions  and  most 
wayward  impulses,  will  not  do.  Mere  legislation,  which, 
in  humanely  prohibiting  cruel  rites  and  barbarous  usages, 
goes  greatly  ahead  of  the  darkened  intelligence  of  the  peo- 
ple, will  not  do.  New  settlements  of  the  revenue  and  landed 
tenures,  however  equitable  in  themselves,  alone  will  not 
do.  Ameliorations  in  the  present  monstrous  system  of 
police  and  corrupting  machinery  of  law  courts,  however 
advantageous,  alone  will  not  suffice,  A  radical  organic 
change  in  the  structure  of  government,  such  as  would 
transfer  it  exclusively  to  the  Crown,  would  not,  could  not, 
of  itself  furnish  an  adequate  cure  for  our  deep-seated 
maladies.  No,  no !  Perhaps  the  present  earthquake 
shock  which  has  passed  over  Indian  society,  upheaving 
and  tearing  to  shreds  some  of  the  noblest  monuments  of 
material  civilization,  as  well  as  the  most  improved  ex- 
pedients of  legislative  and  administrative  wisdom,  has  been 
permitted  to  prove  that  all  merely  human  plans  and 
systems,  whatsoever,  that  exclude  the  life-awakening, 
elevating,  purifying  doctrines  of  gospel  grace  and  salva- 
tion have  impotence  and  failure  stamped  on  their  wrinkled 
brows. ' ' 

And  the  firm  corroborative  views  of  John  Lawrence 
we  shall  have  to  consider  when  we  come  to  his  life. 

It  is  sufficient  now  to  point  out  that  the  govern- 
ment educational  system,  secularized  against  the 
protest  of  Duff  and  later,  after  the  Mutiny,  of  John 
Lawrence,  has  produced  the  results  which  Duff  fore- 
saw.    "  The  present  teaching  in  the  government  high 


THE  CHRISTIAN   STUDENT  1 27 

schools  and  colleges,"  said  Eobert  Clark,  a  lifelong 
resident  of  the  Punjab,  "with  its  so-called  religious 
neutrality  is  only  throwing  a  thick  veil  over  the  land, 
hiding  from  it  all  true  light  and  life,  whilst  it  is 
sapping  the  foundations  of  all  creeds  and  proving 
itself  to  be  the  most  destructive  to  morality  and  to 
all  good  government  in  this  life  as  well  as  all  hope  in 
the  world  to  come."  "  Concerning  teaching  in  gov- 
ernment schools,"  said  the  late  Bishop  Parker  of  the 
Methodist  Church,  "  the  natural  result  of  the  system 
is  to  destroy  religion,  to  break  down  feelings  of 
moral  obligation  and  to  raise  up  a  proud,  unsatisfied, 
discontented,  complaining  class."  "I  found,"  said 
Sir  W.  W.  Hunter,  "from  taking  evidence  of  193 
witnesses  through  India,  as  president  of  the  Educa- 
tion Commission,  that  those  leaders  were  unanimous 
in  lamenting  the  absence  of  religious  teaching  in  our 
state  schools  in  every  province  of  the  Indian  Em- 
pire." 

Neither  its  English  character  nor  its  religious 
neutrality  has  fulfilled  the  expectation  of  the  found- 
ers of  the  educational  system  of  India.  Carey  was 
wiser  in  his  advocacy  of  "a  permanent  healthy 
naturalization"  of  education  by  a  larger  use  of  the 
vernacular.  The  Japanese  have  taught  English  and 
German,  but  they  are  doing  their  educational  work 
in  their  own  language.  The  Chinese,  it  is  to  be 
hoped,  will  do  the  same.  In  the  Philippines,  where 
the  problem  is  more  like  India's,  we  are  following 
England's  example  both  in  English  and  in  religious 
neutrality.  Already  in  the  Philippines  five  times  as 
many  people  speak  English  as  ever  spoke  Spanish. 
In    this  we   are  nearer  wisdom  than  the  English 


128  ALEXANDER   DUFF 

were.  In  our  colourless  religious  policy,  we  are 
equally  unwise. 

Duff  realized  that  the  policy  adopted  was  un- 
changeable and  exerted  his  influence  to  develop  the 
grant-in-aid  scheme  in  the  hope  that  it  might  result 
in  the  transfer  of  the  work  of  education  from  the 
government  with  its  neutral  principles  to  other 
organizations  which  would  supply  the  religious 
element  which  was  required.  This  principle  was 
adopted  fifty  years  ago.  ''  We  confidently  expect," 
said  the  government,  ''that  the  introduction  of  the 
system  of  grants-in-aid  will  very  largely  increase  the 
number  of  schools  of  a  superior  order  ;  and  we  hope 
that,  before  long,  sufficient  provision  may  be  found 
to  exist  in  many  parts  of  the  country  for  the  educa- 
tion of  the  middle  and  higher  classes,  independent 
of  the  government  institutions,  which  may  then  be 
closed." 

Duff  always  pled  for  this  principle.  Its  recogni- 
tion has  been  very  undulatory.  Some  viceroys  have 
supported  it,  others  ignored  it.  Dufferin  cordially 
approved  it:  ''In  aided  schools,"  he  said  in  1887, 
"religious  instruction  may,  of  course,  be  freely 
given,  and  the  Governor- General  in  Ck)uncil  would 
be  sincerely  glad  if  the  number  of  aided  schools  and 
colleges  in  which  religious  instruction  is  prominently 
recognized  were  largely  increased.  It  is  in  this  direc- 
tion that  the  best  solution  of  this  difficult  problem 
can  be  found."  But  Lord  Curzon  had  less  zeal  for 
an  increased  support  of  such  institutions,  his  political 
temper  inclining  to  a  secular  system  under  state 
control. 

Duffs  influence  helped  to  carry  another  useful  re* 


THE  CHRISTIAN  STUDENT  1 29 

form,  the  Romanization  of  writing  the  Indian  lan- 
guages. Sir  Charles  Trevelyan  gives  Duff  the  credit 
for  this. 

Such  services  as  these  are  directly  missionary,  but 
they  are  also  the  services  which  are  of  indispensable 
value  to  every  agency,  political  and  commercial,  re- 
quiring communication  with  the  people. 

After  five  years'  work  in  India,  Duff  was  ordered 
home,  on  account  of  an  attack  of  dysentery  and  the 
prostration  which  ensued.  He  protested  against  go- 
ing. He  had  come  to  India  to  spend  his  life  there  as 
Carey  had  done.  He  urged  that  if  he  must  leave,  it 
might  be  only  for  a  short  sea  voyage.  ''I  devoted 
myself  to  the  Lord,"  he  urged,  "to  spend  and  be 
spent  in  His  service  in  this  land."  The  physicians 
were  inexorable,  however,  and  after  nine  mouths  of 
suffering  from  tropical  disease,  Duff  sailed  to  spend 
four  years  at  home  and  to  do  in  Scotland  a  work  for 
missions  as  great  as  he  had  wrought  in  India.  He 
found  at  first  a  cool  welcome.  For  his  first  quiet 
presentation  of  the  work  to  a  little  company  at  a 
private  house,  he  was  called  before  the  Missionary 
Committee  and  taken  to  task  for  the  irregularity  of 
holding  meetings  without  consulting  and  securing  the 
consent  of  the  committee.  This  small  battle  he  won 
but  the  doors  open  to  him  were  few  until  the  meeting 
of  the  General  Assembly.  Friends  tried  to  dissuade 
him  from  appearing  before  the  General  Assembly. 
He  was  still  weak.  The  docket  of  the  assembly  was 
full  of  items  of  important  business, — such  routine 
business  as  is  so  important  here  on  the  earth  and  as 
is  seen  from  heaven  in  its  true  pettiness.  But  Duff 
knew  he  must  win  the  Church  and  he  insisted  on  ap- 


I30  ALEXANDER  DUFF 

pearing  before  the  assembly  in  connection  with  what 
had  been  the  merely  formal  affair  of  the  presentation 
of  the  report  of  the  India  Mission.  He  rose  half  sick 
to  address  the  assembly  which  waited  unawares  for 
what  he  had  to  say.  For  between  two  and  three 
hours  he  spoke  to  them.  Indifference  gave  way  to 
interest  and  interest  to  emotion.  When  he  finished, 
the  audience  was  weeping.  Tears  rolled  down  the 
cheeks  of  even  the  most  callous  and  careless.  At  oue 
bound,  the  missionary  and  his  cause  had  been  lifted 
into  the  front  of  the  Church's  interest  and  care.  The 
next  day,  the  Scottish  Guardian  presented  the  speech 
in  full  and  said  :  "It  will  be  long  ere  the  assembly 
will  forget  his  pleading.  His  appearance  has  thrown 
a  sacredness  around  its  meetiug,  and  will  give  a 
Christian  elevation  and  dignity  to  the  whole  of  its 
procedure.  His  speech  will  yet  tell  in  its  moral  in- 
fluence, not  only  in  the  cottages  of  India,  but  in  the 
cottages  of  our  own  land,  and  will  send  back  our 
clergy  to  their  homes  smitten  with  the  missionary  and 
apostolic  spirit  that  burns  with  sweet  fervour  in  the 
breast  of  our  devoted  missionary."  Indeed,  the  as- 
sembly became  known  for  that  one  speech  of  DufiTs, 
then  twenty-nine  years  of  age.  The  assembly  ordered 
its  publication  and  40, 000  copies  of  it  were  scattered 
over  Great  Britain  and  America. 

Duff  now  had  his  hearing.  Indeed,  his  first  speech 
brought  upon  him  appeals  to  stay  at  home  and  work 
there.  To  these  he  replied  :  "  Were  I  to  remain  in 
my  native  land,  it  would  doubtless  be  still  in  my 
power  to  do  something  by  way  of  advocating  the 
claims  of  poor,  benighted  India.  In  that  case,  how- 
ever, methiuks  my  tongue  would  not  only  falter,  but 


THE   CHRISTIAN   STUDENT  I3I 

often  'cleave  to  the  roof  of  my  mouth.'  Fearlessly 
and  uuspariugly  have  I  reprobated  the  indolence  and 
cowardice  of  those  who  kept  lingering,  lounging  and 
loitering  at  home,  in  lazy  expectation  of  some  snug, 
peaceful  settlement,  instead  of  nobly  marching  forward 
into  the  wide  field  of  the  world,  to  earn  new  trophies 
for  their  Redeemer,  by  planting  His  standard  in 
hitherto  unconquered  realms.  Neither  have  I  sup- 
pressed my  honest  indignation  at  the  no  less  criminal 
supiueness  of  others,  who,  having  once  obtained  such 
settlements,  ingeniously  devise  a  thousand  petty  friv- 
olous pretexts  for  continuing  to  wrap  themselves  up 
in  the  congenialities  and  luxurious  indulgences  of 
home,  instead  of  boldly  daring,  though  at  an  im- 
measurable distance,  to  tread  in  the  footsteps  of 
apostles  and  prophets  and  martyrs."  From  all  such 
temptations,  Duff  turned  to  fling  himself  into  the 
work  of  rousing  Scotland  to  her  missionary  duty. 
He  went  everywhere  systematically  visiting  and  or- 
ganizing the  Presbyteries,  inaugurating  spiritual  re- 
vivals ;  stimulating  gifts  to  work  both  at  home  and 
abroad  and  enlarging  alike  the  mind  and  the  soul  of 
Scotland,  and  then  in  1839  returned  to  India. 

There  he  found  the  college  still  a  great  success.  Its 
work  had  been  much  advanced  and  its  spiritual 
agencies  perfected  and  it  was  steadily  directed  as  an 
agency  of  great  power  to  the  direct  winning  of  young 
men  to  Christian  faith  and  life.  He  and  his  four 
associates  from  home  constituted  a  band  of  singular 
power  and  as  singular  unity.  One  of  his  first  acts 
was  to  propose  a  plan  of  reorganization,  which  placed 
the  work  under  a  council  made  up  of  the  missionaries 
under  the  senior  or  whomever  the  home  Cliurch  might 


132  ALEXANDER   DUFF 

recognize  as  the  liead.  The  spirit  in  which  the  work 
was  done  is  shown  in  Dr.  Mackay's  report  to  the 
home  committee  :  "  Dr.  Duff  will  tell  you  of  our  meet- 
ing together  regularly  for  consultation,  and  of  what 
we  have  agreed  upon  ;  but  I  cannot  refrain  from  say- 
ing that  in  all  our  new  and  complicated  arrangements, 
arising  out  of  our  increased  number  and  efficiency, 
there  has  been  no  difference  of  opinion  ;  and  we  are 
all  agreed  as  one  man.  Each  is  satisfied  with  his  own 
peculiar  work,  and  all  are  satisfied  that  everything 
has  been  done  for  the  best.  In  Christ  we  feel  that  we 
have  one  Head,  one  end,  and  one  mind  ;  and  believ- 
ing, we  pray  that  we  may  always  labour  together  in 
peace,  and  unity  and  love." 

Not  long  after  this  Duff  felt  obliged  to  open  a  pub- 
lic criticism  of  Lord  Auckland,  the  new  Governor- 
General,  who  had  receded  from  Lord  Bentinck's  edu- 
cational policy  in  the  direction  of  Orientalism  so  far 
as  to  renew  the  subsidies  to  what  Duff  called  "the 
shrines  and  sanctuaries  of  Hindu  and  Mohammedan 
learning  with  all  their  idolatrous,  pantheistic  and 
antichristian  errors ! "  In  publishing  his  letters. 
Duff  was  not  deceived  with  the  thought  that  he 
would  accomplish  anything,  but  he  felt  that  he  must 
justify  his  position  and  express  his  condemnation  of  a 
"reactionary  measure  of  an  incompetent  Governor- 
General." 

"These  words  are  penned,"  he  wrote,  "in  the  full 
assurance  that  with  your  lordship  and  councillors  they  will 
have  the  weight  of  a  feather.  So  let  it  be.  Here,  your 
lordship  is  everything.  Here,  politically  and  civilly 
speaking,  your  voice  is  all  but  omnipotent.     But,  my  lord, 


THE   CHRISTIAN   STUDENT  I33 

I  must  remind  you  that  the  greater  the  power,  the  more 
tremendous  the  responsibility  !  I  must  also  remind  you 
that — apart  from  the  solemnities  of  the  great  assize  to  which 
the  noble  and  mighty  will  be  summoned,  without  respect  of 
persons,  along  with  the  poorest  and  the  meanest  of  the 
land — there  is,  even  here  below,  another  tribunal,  of  a 
different  frame  and  texture  from  that  of  an  Asiatic,  time- 
serving, favour-seeking  community,  at  whose  bar  the 
appeal  of  a  gospel  minister  will  be  heard  as  promptly  as 
that  of  the  noblest  lord.  There  is  a  great  British  public, 
and  above  all,  a  religious  public  in  Great  Britain,  which 
heretofore  hath  been  moved,  and  may  readily  be  moved 
again,  by  the  addresses  and  expostulations  of  a  Christian 
missionary.  A  surer  prospect  of  earning  the  garland  of 
victory  no  Christian  missionary  could  possibly  desire, 
than  the  opportunity  of  boldly  confronting,  on  a  theme 
like  this,  the  mightiest  of  our  state  functionaries,  in  the 
presence  of  a  promiscuous  audience  of  British-born  free- 
men, in  any  city  or  district  from  Cornwall  to  Shetland. 
His  march  would  be  that  of  one  continued  conquest.  The 
might  and  the  majesty  of  a  great  people,  awakened  to 
discern  the  truth  and  import  of  things  as  they  are,  would 
increasingly  swell  his  train.  And  from  the  triumph  of 
indomitable  principle  in  Britain  would  emanate,  as  in 
times  past,  an  influence  which  would  soon  cause  itself  to 
be  felt  in  the  supreme  councils  of  India,  and  thence  ex- 
tend, with  renovating  efficacy,  through  all  its  anti-religious 
schools  and  colleges." 

This  was  characteristic  of  Duff's  spirit.  He  was 
not  afraid  of  governors.  He  had  declined  to  attend 
a  governor-general's  ball  in  Lord  Bentinck's  time, 
because  there  was  to  be  dancing,  and  his  attitude 


134  ALEXANDER   DUFF 

was  appreciated  ;  aucl  he  and  Mrs.  Duff  were  invited 
to  dinner  by  Lord  and  Lady  Bentinck.  And  now  be 
scored  Lord  Auckland  for  his  folly  and  reaction. 
He  spoke  once  of  the  bold  position  his  mission  had 
taken  in  the  face  of  heathenism.  He  was  quite  as 
bold  iu  the  face  of  Christians.  His  force  and  magni- 
tude of  mind  delivered  him  from  timidity  before 
strong  issues  or  great  situations. 

He  had  to  face  one  such  soon  in  the  problem 
raised  by  the  disruption  of  the  Church  in  Scotland 
and  he  did  not  hesitate.  His  mind,  which  he  had 
not  felt  free  to  express,  while  the  issue  was  undecided, 
had  been  already  made  up  and  when  the  schism  at 
home  made  it  necessary  for  the  missionaries  to  choose, 
he  at  once  took  his  place  with  the  Free  Church. 
The  property  of  the  college  which  he  had  built  up 
and  which  would  have  had  no  existence  but  for  him, 
went  to  the  Established  Church,  so  that  he  and  his 
associates  were  forced  to  begin  anew.  Duff  believed 
that  he  was  entitled  to  retain  the  institution  and  he 
might  have  kept  a  spacious  tract  of  adjoining  laud 
which  was  held  iu  his  own  name  and  which  was 
ample  for  a  new  institution  if  the  old  should  be  sur- 
rendered to  the  Established  Church.  But  Duff  had 
no  mind  to  fight  with  Christian  men  for  his  rights 
when  time  was  needed  for  saving  souls. 

"Were  any  one  at  this  moment,"  he  wrote,  "to 
offer  me,  in  free  gift,  a  library  and  apparatus,  of 
ten  times  or  tenfold  ten  times  the  extent  of  those  now 
in  debate,  under  the  contingent  condition  of  its 
possibly  entailing,  some  years  hence,  half  the  loss 
of  time  and  vexation  of  spirit  which,  from  first  to 
last,   has  been  incurred    by  the    present  wretched 


THE   CHRISTIAN   STUDENT  I35 

and  unedifying  discussion,  I  would  fling  the  offer 
with  loathing  indignation  away  from  me."  And  he 
even  refused  to  use  the  land  he  held  adjoining  the 
old  institution.  He  held  to  the  Saviour's  theory  of 
rights, — that  being  ours,  we  have  a  right  to  sur- 
render them.  You  cannot  very  well  quarrel  with 
such  men. 

As  the  Free  Church  was  obliged  to  found  both  at 
home  and  abroad  new  institutions  of  its  own.  Duff 
urged  that  the  opportunity  should  be  improved  to 
establish  in  the  Free  Church  College  at  home  a 
missionary  chair.  It  was  years  before  his  ideal  was 
realized.  He  had  written  of  it  to  Dr.  Gordon  in 
1844.  It  was  in  1865  that  he  revived  the  project 
before  the  General  Assembly. 

''  When  passing  through  the  theological  curriculum 
of  St.  Andrews,"  he  said,  ''I  was  struck  markedly 
with  this  circumstance,  that  throughout  the  whole 
course  of  the  curriculum  of  four  years  not  one  single 
allusion  was  ever  made  to  the  subject  of  the  world's 
evangelization — the  subject  which  constitutes  the 
chief  end  of  the  Christian  Church  on  earth.  I  felt 
intensely  that  there  was  something  wrong  in  this 
omission.  According  to  any  just  conception  of  the 
Church  of  Christ,  the  grand  function  it  has  to  dis- 
charge in  this  world  cannot  be  said  to  begin  and  end 
in  the  preservation  of  internal  purity  of  doctrine, 
discipline  and  government.  All  this  is  merely  for 
burnishing  it  so  as  to  give  light  not  to  itself  but  also 
to  the  world.  There  must  be  an  outcome  of  that 
light,  lest  it  prove  useless,  and  thereby  be  lost  and 
extinguished.  Why  has  it  got  that  light  but  that  it 
should  freely  impart  it  to  others  ?  "     He  succeeded  in 


136  ALEXANDER  DUFF 

getting  this  Assembly  of  1865  to  provide  that  the 
chair  should  be  accepted  by  an  experienced  foreign 
missionary  and  that  the  appointment  should  be  for 
life.  To  his  surprise,  the  place  was  forced  upon  him, 
though  he  succeeded  in  preventing  the  chair  from 
bearing  his  name  and  he  never  used  the  income  from 
the  endowment  of  £10,000,  but  devoted  it  to  the 
establishment  of  a  Missionary  Institute. 

Duffs  second  term  of  service  in  India  covered 
eleven  years.  More  than  once  during  these  years 
baptisms  in  the  college  shook  its  patronage  but  not 
its  stability.  In  1845,  he  faced  a  specially  bitter 
opposition  ;  this  time  due  not  so  much  to  old  orthodox 
Brahmans,  as  to  wealthy  upstart  Hindus  allied  with 
the  priests.  The  opposition  expended  itself  in  coarse 
threats  of  personal  violence  and  more  permanently 
in  the  establishment  of  a  rival  institution. 

Towards  the  close  of  his  second  term  of  service  in 
India,  Chalmers  died.  The  Church  at  home  instinc- 
tively turned  to  Duff  as  his  true  successor,  at  the  head 
of  the  New  College  which  Chalmers  had  founded  in 
Edinburgh.  The  General  Assembly  of  1848  formally 
called  upon  him  to  return.  After  expressing  his  ap- 
preciation of  the  honour  of  the  great  call,  and  of  the 
way  men  and  the  press  were  congratulating  him  upon 
his  contemplated  ''election"  or  "promotion,"  he 
wrote  :  "I  deem  it,  therefore,  an  unspeakable  privi- 
lege to  have  it  in  my  power  to  do  anything,  however 
humble,  towards  magnifying  my  much  despised  of- 
fice. The  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter  is  this,  that 
in  some  form  or  other,  home  or  abroad,  or  partly 
both,  the  Church  of  my  fathers  must  see  it  to  be 
right  and  meet  to  allow  me  to  retain,  in  the  view  of 


THE  CHRISTIAN  STUDENT  137 

all  men,  the  clearly-marked  and  distinguishing  char- 
acter of  a  missionary  to  the  heathen  abroad,  labour- 
ing directly  amongst  them  ;  at  home,  pleading  their 
cause  among  the  Churches  of  Christendom.  .  .  . 
For  the  sake  of  the  heathen,  and  especially  the  people 
of  India,  let  me  cling  all  my  days  to  the  missionary 
cause." 

The  protests  which  the  proposal  called  forth  from 
various  classes  in  India  showed  how  powerful  an 
impression  Dufif  had  made.  "His  name,"  said  one 
appeal  from  eleven  learned  Brahmans,  in  Sanskrit, 
"is  in  the  mouth  of  every  Hindu  because  of  his 
transcendent  eloquence,  learning  and  philanthropy." 
"While  he  declined  the  call  from  the  home  Church, 
he  assented  to  the  advice  of  friends  that  he  should  go 
home  to  do  for  the  missionary  work  of  the  new  Free 
Church  what  he  had  done  for  the  whole  Church  be- 
fore the  disruption.  What  he  had  in  mind  to  press 
as  he  came  home  on  this  errand,  he  set  forth  in  a 
letter  to  Dr.  Tweedie  on  May  3,  1850.  He  is  speak- 
ing of  the  approaching  General  Assembly  : 

"Tuesday  the  28th  would  do  well  for  our  missions. 
Could  we  not  get  the  whole  day  for  them  ?  How  often  is 
a  whole  day  given  to  the  discussion  of  a  case  of  discipline  ! 
And  is  it  too  much  to  give  to  that  of  the  greatest  cause  on 
earth  ?  There  is  your  report ;  Anderson,  Nesbit,  perhaps 
Rajahgopal,  will  speak,  why  not  some  other  members  of 
Assembly  ?  Then  I  would  require  at  least  two  or  three 
hours  to  be  able  to  say  anything  at  all.  If  the  whole  day 
were  given  to  the  mission,  I  would  prefer  to  have  the 
evening,  so  as  to  take  up  any  matters  that  may  have 
dropped  during  the  day,  etc.     For  yourself  alone,  at  pres- 


138  ALEXANDER  DUFF 

ent,  let  me  state  a  few  things  that  appear  to  me  highly  de- 
sirable to  be  done.  First,  to  appoint  a  day  of  humiliation 
and  prayer  throughout  the  Church  for  past  sins  of  negli- 
gence, with  reference  to  the  Redeemer's  great  command 
to  evangelize  the  nations.  This  would,  if  done  con  amore, 
go  much  to  the  root  of  our  evils,  and  mellow  people's 
hearts  and  open  the  windows  of  heaven.  Second  :  Sub- 
stitute regular  weekly  subscriptions  for  the  annual  collec- 
tions, as  the  only  suitable  and  productive  and  becoming 
source  of  supply  for  a  great  and  permanent  undertaking. 
Third :  Let  the  rule  of  proportion  be  better  established 
with  reference  to  men's  liberalities  towards  different  ob- 
jects. Fourth  :  Cut  me  off  a  county  or  a  synod  in  which 
to  give  fair  trial  to  the  new  experiment.  There  is  no  other 
way  of  fairly  testing  it.  Occasional  addresses  and  appeals 
go  for  nothing.  I  should  like  to  see  a  living  machinery 
established  as  a  specimen  somewhere." 

The  General  Assembly  approved  his  plans  and 
for  three  years  and  a  half  he  "gave  himself  to  the 
creating  of  his  new  organization — an  association  for 
prayer,  information,  and  the  quarterly  collection  of 
subscriptions  for  the  missions  in  every  one  of  the 
then  seven  hundred  congregations  of  the  Free  Church 
of  Scotland."  Dr.  Smith  says  that  ''before  or  soon 
after  his  return  to  Bengal,  he  had  secured  the  estab- 
lishment of  five  hundred  associations,  yielding  a 
'sure  and  continuous  increase'  of  funds  to  meet 
'  the  requirements  of  a  continuous  expenditure.'  " 

In  addition  to  his  direct  missionary  service  while 
at  home,  Duff  was  able  to  do  a  work  of  great  value  in 
giving  form  to  the  reorganization  of  the  government 
educational  system  in  India.     The  last  renewal  of  the 


THE  CHRISTIAN  STUDENT  I39 

East  ludia  Company's  charter  came  in  1853.  The 
Mutiny  swept  it  away.  As  preceding  acts  of  renewal 
had  steadily  liberalized  the  charter,  so  this  one  con- 
tinued the  tradition  of  improvement.  The  civil 
service  was  improved  and  the  educational  provisions 
were  changed  for  the  better,  though  not  to  Duff's 
satisfaction.  What  improvements  were  made,  how- 
ever, were  chiefly  due  to  his  testimony  and  advice 
before  the  Parliamentary  Committee.  He  contended 
for  a  Christiauization  of  the  government  education. 
"No  amelioration  in  our  legislative  or  judicial 
policy,"  he  declared,  "will  reach  the  springs  of 
some  of  those  evils  which  I  have  attempted  so  inade- 
quately to  delineate.  Their  spring-heads  are  to  be 
found  in  those  deep-rooted  superstitions  which  work 
so  disastrously  in  deteriorating  native  society.  Noth- 
ing can  suffice  but  a  real,  thorough,  searching,  moral- 
izing, and  I  should  individually  say.  Christianizing 
course  of  instruction,  which,  by  illumining  the  under- 
standing and  purifying  the  heart,  will  inspire  with 
the  love  of  truth  and  rectitude,  and  so  elevate  the 
whole  tone  of  moral  feeling  and  social  sentiment 
among  the  people." 

He  advocated  the  discontinuance  of  the  remnant  of 
the  policy  of  Orientalism  which  Lord  Auckland  had 
revived,  the  development  of  the  grant-in-aid  scheme, 
the  establishment  of  universities  and  the  introduction 
of  the  Bible  in  the  schools. 

Before  returning  to  India,  Duff  visited  America  in 
1854-1855,  at  the  urgent  invitation  of  George  H. 
Stuart.  His  presence  here  was  a  continual  ovation 
and  the  great  missionary  was  nearly  killed  with 
kindness.     In  Philadelphia  and   New  York  he  ad- 


I40  ALEXANDER  DUFF 

dressed  great  tliroDgs.  Some  still  living  remember 
the  fervour  of  his  oratory.  One  who  heard  him  has 
told  me  of  the  way  iu  which  he  worked  up  his  argu- 
ment. He  grew  more  and  more  intense,  gathering 
up  the  tails  of  his  long  frock  coat  under  his  arms, 
until  as  he  reached  the  climax,  he  had  a  tight  rolled 
bundle  of  coat  tail  under  each  arm  and  was  leaping 
up  and  down  in  his  intensity.  The  reporters  were 
so  carried  away  that  they  lost  his  peroration.  It  was 
a  style  of  oratory  which  has  passed  away,  affluent, 
orotund,  tropical,  with  immense  sentences  and  peri- 
ods, rather  destitute  of  humour,  but  wonderfully  rich 
and  ample  ;  and  warm  with  the  transfusing  love  and 
devotion  of  the  man's  soul.  He  would  speak  for 
hours — often  three — and  he  told  one  Scotch  General 
Assembly  that  it  was  easier  for  him  to  speak  six 
hours  than  a  shorter  time.  But  he  was  not  all  words. 
His  speech  was  to  definite  ends  and  in  question  of 
policy  he  came  right  down  to  hard  and  elemental 
essentials. 

During  his  stay  in  New  York,  a  missionary  con- 
ference was  held  attended  by  300  ministers  at  which 
a  series  of  discussions  dealt  with  various  missionary 
problems  and  issued  in  a  series  of  resolutions  offered 
by  Dr.  Duff.  The  influence  of  that  conference  lasted 
in  New  York  into  our  own  day.  The  men  whom  it 
influenced,  however,  have  now  almost  all  passed 
away.  It  may  be  doubted  whether  any  subsequent 
conference  has  produced  more  definite  and  abiding 
results.  Duff's  personality  dominated  it.  He  was 
the  conference. 

Duff  returned  to  India  just  before  the  Sepoy  Mutiny 
broke.     He  called  it  the  Indian  Eebellion.     He  wrote 


THE  CHRISTIAN  STUDENT  14! 

a  series  of  letters  from  the  midst  of  it  and  about  it  to 
Dr.  Tweedie  which  were  published  and  which  though 
coloured,  of  course,  by  the  intensity  of  the  situation, 
are  far  less  so  than  the  accounts  of  the  Peking  siege 
by  those  who  experienced  it.  These  letters  are  still 
in  many  regards  the  best  account  we  have  of  the 
cause  and  character  of  the  rebellion.  Duff  agreed 
with  John  Lawrence  in  attributing  the  rebellion  to 
the  policy  of  the  East  India  Company  and  govern- 
ment ;  it  had  been  a  truckling,  compromising  policy 
from  the  beginning,  a  policy  of  treason  to  Chris- 
tianity and  of  steady  resistance  to  the  claims  of 
higher  duty.  The  discontent  which  issued  in  the 
Mutiny  had  many  causes  and  occasions  but  in  the 
end  the  great  cause  was  the  traditional  spirit  of 
trimming,  of  selfishness,  of  no  principle,  wrong 
principle  or  half-principle.  The  Mutiny  was  the 
reaping  from  a  long  harvest.  Even  when  in  the 
midst  of  it,  the  Anglican  Bishop  appealed  to  the 
Governor-General  to  set  a  day  of  humiliation  and 
prayer,  he  refused,  but  issued  a  proclamation  which 
practically  disavowed  Christianity  by  ignoring  it, 
and  the  same  paper  which  published  the  proclama- 
tion announced,  said  Duff,  ' '  the  closing  of  all  gov- 
ernment offices  for  about  ten  days  in  honour  of  the 
most  celebrated  of  our  idolatrous  festivals — the  Durga 
Puja."  Duff  found  in  the  Mutiny  as  others  did  fresh 
evidence  in  support  of  his  conviction  that  the  Chris- 
tianization  of  India  was  the  only  guarantee  of  the 
endurance  and  peace  of  its  political  relations  to 
Great  Britain. 

Duff  spent  six  years  in  India  after  the  Mutiny. 
The  college  continued  its  prosperity  and  its  influ- 


142  ALEXANDER  DUFF 

ence.  Yet  such  influences  are  both  more  and  less 
than  men  suppose.  Indeed,  here  is  as  good  a  place 
as  elsewhere  to  suggest  that  Duff  was  far  more  the 
power  of  his  work  than  his  method  was.  The 
method  itself  minus  such  a  personality  as  Duff's  has 
proved  relatively  barren.  Indeed,  any  method  will. 
Vernacular  preaching  may  be  as  futile  a  performance 
as  pouring  water  through  sieves.  The  real  power  is 
the  power  of  personality  possessed  by  the  living  Spirit 
of  God.  That  will  accomplish  results  through  any 
method  which  provides  for  personal  contact,  and  no 
method  will  avail  much  without  that. 

His  last  work  in  India  was  in  connection  with  the 
University  of  Calcutta  and  the  grant-in-aid  system. 
"So  long  as  he  remained  in  Calcutta  he  secured 
fair  play  for  the  liberal  and  self-developing  principles 
of  the  education  despatch  of  1854.  When  he  and 
Dr.  Wilson  ceased  to  influence  affairs  and  rulers,  the 
public  instruction  of  India  began  to  fall  back  into 
the  bureaucratic,  anti-moral  and  politically  danger- 
ous system,  from  which  Lord  Halifax  thought  he 
had  forever  rescued  it."  ^ 

He  was  vice-chancellor  of  the  university,  the 
viceroy  by  his  office  being  chancellor,  and  he  was 
its  ruler  while  he  was  in  India.  "To  his  gigantic 
mind,"  says  Dr.  Banerjea,  "the  successive  vice- 
chancellors  paid  due  deference,  and  he  was  the 
virtual  governor  of  the  university.  .  .  .  Dr. 
Duff  was  the  first  person  who  insisted  on  education 
in  the  physical  sciences,  and  strongly  urged  the 
establishment  of  a  professorship  of  physical  science 
for  the  university."  He  was  a  Christian  missionary, 
1  Smith,  "Life  of  DufE,"  Vol.  II,  p.  382.  , 


THE  CHRISTIAN  STUDENT  I43 

but  he  was  also  a  bigger  man  than  the  men  about 
him.  It  was  he  who  years  before  had  been  the 
means  of  introducing  real  medical  education,  when 
the  government  was  afraid  to  touch  it  for  caste 
prejudice.  It  was  he  now  who  secured  for  the 
physical  sciences  their  right  place.  He  had  never 
been  afraid  of  truth.  Truth  would  never  hurt  truth, 
he  held,  and  he  was  sure  that  the  truth  about  God 
would  never  suffer  from  truth  about  His  world.  Sir 
Henry  Maine,  who  succeeded  him  as  vice-chancellor, 
referred  to  this  quality  in  a  convocation  as  he  left 
India  : 

"I  am  not  aware  that  he  ever  desired  the  university  to 
refuse  instruction  in  any  subject  of  knowledge  because  he 
considered  it  dangerous.  Where  men  of  feebler  minds  or 
weaker  faith  would  have  shrunk  from  encouraging  the 
study  of  this  or  that  classical  language,  because  it  en- 
shrined the  archives  of  some  antique  superstition,  or 
would  have  refused  to  stimulate  proficiency  in  this  or  that 
walk  of  physical  science,  because  its  conclusions  were  sup- 
posed to  lean  to  irreligious  consequences,  Dr.  Duff,  be- 
lieving his  own  creed  to  be  true,  believed  also  that  it  had 
the  great  characteristic  of  truth — that  characteristic  which 
nothing  else  except  truth  possesses — that  it  can  be  recon- 
ciled with  everything  else  which  is  also  true.  Gentlemen, 
if  you  only  realize  how  rare  this  combination  of  qualities  is 
— how  seldom  the  energy  which  springs  from  religious 
conviction  is  found  united  with  perfect  fearlessness  in  en- 
couraging the  spread  of  knowledge,  you  will  understand 
what  we  have  lost  through  Dr.  Duff's  departure,  and  why 
I  place  it  among  the  foremost  events  in  the  university 
year." 


144  ALEXANDER  DUFF 

In  1863  at  last,  when  he  was  fifty-seven,  Duff 
realized  that  his  duty  to  foreign  missions  required 
that  he  should  return  to  Scotland  to  live  and  work 
there.  But  he  would  not  have  gone  even  then  if  his 
dysentery  had  not  returned,  and  his  condition  of 
health  become  such  that  a  sea  voyage  and  rest  had 
failed  to  restore  him.  His  departure  was  the  occasion 
of  such  a  flood  of  grateful  expressions  as  no  governor 
or  viceroy  ever  received.  It  took  many  forms,  but 
none,  with  his  approval,  inconsistent  with  the  mis- 
sionary character  which  had  been  so  supreme  with 
him  as  to  warrant  Sir  Henry  Maine's  words  in  the 
address  already  referred  to  :  "It  would  be  easy  for 
me  to  enumerate  the  direct  services  which  he  rendered 
to  us  by  aiding  us  with  unflagging  assiduity,  in  the 
regulation,  supervision,  and  amendment  of  our  course 
of  study ;  but  in  the  presence  of  so  many  native 
students  and  native  gentlemen  who  viewed  him  with 
the  intensest  regard  and  admiration,  although  they 
knew  that  his  every-day  wish  and  prayer  was  to  over- 
throw their  ancient  faith,  I  should  be  ashamed  to 
speak  of  him  in  any  other  character  than  the  only 
one  which  he  cared  to  fill — the  character  of  a  mis- 
sionary." "A  few  of  the  Scottish  merchants  of 
India,  Singapore,  and  China  offered  him  £11,000. 
The  capital  he  destined  for  the  invalided  mission- 
aries of  his  own  Church,  and  for  these  it  is  now  ad- 
ministered by  the  surviving  donors  as  trustees.  On 
the  interest  of  this  sum  he  thenceforth  lived,  refusing 
all  the  emoluments  of  the  offices  he  held.  The  only 
personal  gift  which  he  was  constrained  to  accept  was 
the  house.  No.  22  Lauder  Eoad,  Edinburgh,  which 
the  same  friends  insisted  on  purchasing  for  him." 


THE   CHRISTIAN   STUDENT  145 

Duff  lived  to  lead  for  eleven  years  the  missionary 
work  of  the  Free  Church.  He  perfected  the  mission- 
ary organization  of  the  Church.  He  believed  in 
work,  and  the  man  of  sixty  went  about  with  the  same 
almost  tornado  energy  of  a  generation  before.  He 
believed  in  expansion,  and  his  administration  saw 
the  establishment  of  new  missions  in  India  and  Syria 
and  Africa  and  led  to  the  mission  to  the  New  Heb- 
rides in  the  South  Seas.  Home  administration  of 
missions  is  not  a  romantic  thing  and  Dr.  Duff  did 
not  accomplish  anything  remarkable.  Governments 
with  unlimited  financial  resources  can  plan  with  a 
free  hand,  but  even  the  greatest  missionary  adminis- 
trators like  Duff  are  obliged  to  do  things  patiently 
and  to  be  content  to  wait.  He  dealt  with  the  diffi- 
cult problems  of  missionary  salaries  and  decided  as 
all  Boards  decide.  But  his  work  at  home  was  more 
than  a  work  of  missionary  administration.  He  was 
foremost  in  the  negotiations  for  the  union  between 
the  Free  and  United  Presbyterian  Churches,  which 
has  only  been  consummated  a  generation  since  in  our 
own  day.  For  a  second  time,  he  was  Moderator  of 
the  General  Assembly,  and  in  his  own  land  and  in 
England  and  on  the  continent,  his  ripened  character 
and  immense  powers  found  opportunity  for  activity 
in  behalf  of  the  cause  which  he  realized  was  the  one 
cause  above  all  causes.  At  the  age  of  seventy-two  he 
went  peacefully  on  from  his  work  here  for  that  cause 
to  the  service  in  its  behalf  which  is  untrammelled  by 
the  limitations  of  earth.  The  whole  of  Edinburgh 
shared  in  his  burial.  ''For  the  first  time  in  Scottish 
ecclesiastical  history,  three  Kirks  and  their  Modera- 
tors, the  representatives  of  the  English  and  American 


146  ALEXANDER   DUFF 

and  Indian  Churches  through  their  missionary  so- 
cieties  aud  officials,  trod  the  one  funeral  march." 
And  shortly  after,  Mr.  Gladstone,  after  referring  to 
the  great  missionary  names  of  the  Church  of  England, 
Selwyn  and  Patteson,  and  then  the  names  of  Carey, 
Marshman  and  Mofiatt,  added  : 

"But  we  must  recollect  Dr.  Duff  as  one  who  not  only 
stood  in  the  first  rank  for  intelligence,  energy,  devotion 
and  advancement  in  the  inward  and  spiritual  life  among 
those  distinguished  and  admirable  personages,  but  who 
likewise  so  intensely  laboured  in  the  cause  that  he  short- 
ened the  career  which  Providence  would  in  all  likelihood 
have  otherwise  committed  to  him,  and  he  has  reaped  his 
reward  in  the  world  beyond  the  grave  at  an  earlier  date 
than  those  whose  earthly  career  is  lengthened  into  a  long 
old  age.  He  is  one  of  the  noble  army  of  the  confessors 
of  Christ.  Let  no  one  envy  them  the  crown  which  they 
have  earned.  Let  every  man,  on  the  contrary,  knowing 
that  they  now  stand  in  the  presence  and  in  the  judgment 
of  Him  before  Whom  we  must  all  appear,  rejoice  that  they 
have  fought  a  good  fight,  that  they  have  run  their  race 
manfully  and  nobly,  and  that  they  have  laboured  for  the 
glory  of  God  and  the  good  of  man." 

I  have  to  add  but  a  little  regarding  Duffs  mission- 
ary view  and  personal  character.  He  is  often  spoken 
of  as  representing  the  exaltation  of  education  as  a 
missionary  method  above  direct  evangelization.  But 
his  type  of  education  was  evangelization.  His  teach- 
ing of  secular  subjects  was  interpenetrated  and  indis- 
solubly  bound  by  requirement  to  the  fullest  religious 
teaching.     He  valued  his  school  only   as  a  direct 


THE   CHRISTIAN   STUDENT  I47 

evangelizing  activity.  He  had  no  conception  of 
secular  character.  The  only  character  of  which  he 
knew  was  Christian  character.  Yet  he  did  recognize 
a  distinction  between  education  and  itineracy. 

The  numerical  results  of  both  forms  of  work  he  ad- 
mitted had  been  small  in  Bengal.  Speaking  of 
Lacroix,  he  said,  ''Though  he  laboured  far  more  and 
far  longer  than  any  other  man  in  the  direct  preaching 
of  the  Gospel  to  myriads  in  their  own  vernacular 
tongue,  and  though  no  foreigner,  in  this  part  of  India, 
ever  equalled  him  in  his  power  of  arresting  and  com- 
manding the  attention  of  a  Bengalee-speaking  audi- 
ence, yet  the  success  vouchsafed  to  his  faithful, 
acceptable  and  untiring  labours  in  the  way  of  the 
conversion  of  souls  to  God,  for  which  he  intensely 
longed  and  prayed,  was  comparatively  very  small." 
Yet  as  he  urged  upon  the  General  Assembly  of  1865 
both  services  must  be  carried  on  : 

''  Our  plan  never  was  intended  to  be — and,  in  point 
of  fact,  never  actually  was — a  narrow,  one-sided, 
fixed,  exclusive  plan.  .  .  .  From  the  very  outset 
the  two  kindred  and  reciprocally  auxiliary  processes 
of  training  the  young  for  varied  future  usefulness, 
and  addressing  the  adults,  through  whatever  lingual 
medium  might  be  found  most  effective  in  reaching 
their  understandings  and  their  hearts,  were  simulta- 
neously carried  on,  side  by  side." 

He  was  an  extreme  advocate  of  centralization  in 
mission  work.  But  he  had  a  good  mediating  mind, 
although  in  the  matter  of  Euglish  higher  education 
he  defended  the  extreme  view,  and  doubtless  he 
would  state  almost  as  strongly  as  missionary  experi- 
ence would  lead  us  to  state  to-day  the  importance  of 


148  ALEXANDER  DUFF 

balancing  strong  central  stations  with  a  wide  country 
work,  both  to  save  the  central  stations  from  stag- 
nancy and  to  utilize  and  conserve  the  results  of  their 
institutional  work. 

Duff  did  not  see  as  clearly  as  we  see — our  bitter 
experience  has  taught  us — the  importance  of  self- 
support  and  the  spirit  of  independence  in  the  native 
Churches.  His  eyes  were  towards  the  Church  at 
home,  not  towards  the  native  Church  as  the  source  of 
support  for  native  workers.  There  is  a  large,  legiti- 
mate and  necessary  employment  of  native  workers 
from  home  funds.  But  it  is  calamitous  to  allow  a 
native  Church  to  grow  up  in  the  view  that  the  choice 
for  young  men  qualified  for  Christian  service  must 
be  either  secular  service  or  support  from  mission 
funds. 

The  importance  of  a  native  agency  Duff  saw  clearly 
from  the  outset.  He  put  it  vigorously  in  his  first 
General  Assembly  speech  in  1835. 

''Oh,  there  is  that  in  the  tones  of  a  foreigner's 
voice  which  falls  cold  and  heavy  on  the  ear  of  a 
native,  and  seldom  reaches  the  heart ! — whereas, 
there  is  something  in  the  genuine  tones  of  a  country- 
man's voice,  which,  operating  as  a  charm,  falls 
pleasantly  on  the  ear,  and  comes  home  to  the  feelings 
and  touches  the  heart,  and  causes  the  tenderest  cords 
to  vibrate.  .  .  .  And  having  the  thousand  ad- 
vantages, besides,  of  knowing  the  habits,  the  man- 
ners, the  customs,  the  trains  of  thought  and  principles 
of  reasoning  among  the  people,  they  can  strike  in 
with  arguments,  and  objections,  and  illustrations, 
and  imagery  which  we  could  never,  never  have  con- 
ceived.    How  glorious  then  must  be  the  day  for  India 


THE  CHRISTIAN  STUDENT  I49 

when  such  qualified  native  agents  are  prepared  to  go 
forth  among  the  people,  and  shake  and  agitate  and 
rouse  them  from  the  lethargy  and  the  slumber  of 
ages !" 

The  missionaries,  however,  were  hampered  by  their 
adherence  to  home  requirements  in  the  case  of  ordina- 
tion and  in  several  ways  the  practical  carrying  out  of 
useful  plans  was  impeded  by  stiffness  of  policy  and 
system.  In  consequence  some  of  Duffs  first  converts, 
who  could  have  been  useful  assistants,  went  off  into 
the  service  of  other  missions. 

Duff's  large-minded  views  on  comity  have  been 
already  referred  to.  He  was  prepared  for  a  yet 
larger  measure  of  cooperation  and  advocated  joint 
missionary  activities  on  the  part  of  the  Presbyterian 
Alliance.  Such  a  plan,  carried  on  side  by  side  with 
the  separate  missions  of  the  various  Churches,  would 
have  been  difficult  of  operation,  but  it  might  have 
given  the  Alliance  an  enduring  life  or  made  it  the 
central  agency  in  the  movement  towards  Christian 
union. 

Of  DufiPs  character,  what  has  been  said  has  been 
sufficiently  illustrative — of  his  modesty  and  humility, 
of  his  energy  and  power,  of  his  devotion  and  single- 
ness of  mind,  of  his  solidity  of  conviction  and  breadth 
of  influence,  of  his  large  comprehension  and  yet  saga- 
cious directness  of  accomplishment.  To  our  Ameri- 
can mind,  he  dreamed  a  little  too  tropically,  was  a 
little  too  serious  and  universal.  "We  play  more  with 
our  grave  purposes.  But  he  liked  no  such  play.  It 
was  ^'playing  with  missions"  of  which  he  accused 
the  Church  and  he  dealt  with  life  and  his  work  with 
a  solemn  conviction  of  which  it  were  well  for  us  to 


I50  ALEXANDER  DUFF 

have  more,  if  we  would  complete  the  great  task  at 
which  he  wrought  with  such  prodigious  power  aud 
marked  success.  ''  It  was  the  special  glory  of  Alex- 
auder  Duff,"  said  Bishop  Cotton,  when  the  great 
missionary  was  leaving  India  for  the  last  time,  ''  that 
arriving  here  in  the  midst  of  a  great  intellectual 
movement  of  a  completely  atheistical  character,  he 
at  once  resolved  to  make  that  character  Christian. 
When  the  new  generation  of  Bengalees  and  too  many, 
alas,  of  their  European  friends  and  teachers  were 
talking  of  Christianity  as  an  obsolete  superstition, 
soon  to  be  burned  up  in  the  pyre  on  which  the  creeds 
of  the  Brahman,  the  Buddhist  and  the  Mohammedan 
were  already  perishing,  Alexander  Duff  suddenly 
burst  upon  the  scene  with  his  unhesitating  faith,  his 
indomitable  energy,  his  varied  erudition,  and  his 
never-failing  stream  of  fervid  eloquence,  to  teach  them 
that  the  Gospel  was  not  dead  or  sleeping,  not  the  ally 
of  ignorance  and  error,  not  ashamed  or  unable  to 
vindicate  its  claims  to  universal  reverence  ;  but  that 
then,  as  always,  the  Gospel  of  Christ  was  marching 
forward  in  the  van  of  civilization,  and  that  the 
Church  of  Christ  was  still  '  the  light  of  the  world.' 
The  effect  of  his  fearless  stand  against  the  arrogance 
of  infidelity  has  lasted  to  this  day  ;  and  whether  the 
number  he  has  baptized  is  small  or  great  (some  there 
are  among  them  whom  we  all  know  and  honour)  it  is 
quite  certain  that  the  work  which  he  did  in  India 
can  never  be  undone,  unless  we,  whom  he  leaves  be- 
hind, are  faithless  to  his  example."  "Where  are  the 
men  of  gravity  and  courage  who  will  do  this  work 
in  our  day  ?  Viceroys  come  and  go  in  India  and 
new  Pharaohs  arise  at  home,  but  the  need,  which  Alex- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  STUDENT  151 

ander  Dufif  so  nobly  met,  abides,  the  need  of  men  who 
can  drive  the  religious  sanctions  under  the  institution 
of  government,  who  can  keep  the  truth  of  God  alive 
amid  the  truths  which  men  discover  about  God's  world 
and  who  can  penetrate  the  intellectual  and  social  life 
of  their  day  with  the  purifying  and  saving  power  of 
the  Gospel. 


LECTURE  IV 

GEORGE  BOWEN,  THE  CHRISTIAN 
MYSTIC  AND  THE  ASCETIC  IDEAL 


LECTURE  IV 

GEORGE  BOWEN,  THE  CHRISTIAN  MYS- 
TIC AND  THE  ASCETIC  IDEAL 

IF  any  Christian  of  modern  times  is  worthy  to  be 
set  with  Raymond  Lull,  it  is  George  Bowen. 
There  have  been  missionaries  who  accomplished 
more  than  either  of  these,  but  there  have  been  few 
who  combined  in  the  same  unique  way  the  spirit 
of  absolute  self-sacrifice,  extraordinary  intellectual 
abilities,  unresting  energy  and  a  love  for  the  personal 
Christ  as  passionate  as  Peter's  and  as  steadfast  as 
John's,  whose  faith  moreover  stood  unshaken  against 
discouragement,  and  rested  with  confidence  upon  the 
certainty  of  things  not  seen.  It  is  less  of  an  injustice 
to  these  great  men  that  they  should  be  unknown  to 
our  generation  than  it  is  of  loss  to  us  that  we  should 
miss  the  courage  and  spiritual  incentive  to  be  found 
in  their  lives  ;  lives,  in  Bowen' s  case  at  least  and  we 
may  believe  in  Lull's  also,  as  closely  resembling  the 
earthly  life  of  Christ  as  any  lives  that  men  saw  in 
their  times,  as  any  lives  that  we  see  in  our  time. 
The  centuries  remove  Lull  from  our  personal  ac- 
quaintance but  some  are  living  who  knew  and  loved 
Bowen,  and  his  influence  is  still  so  clear  and  charac- 
teristic that  many  of  us  who  never  knew  him  have 
yet  felt  him  and  in  the  truest  sense  touched  his  soul. 

"George    Bowen    was  born  in  Middlebury,  Vermont, 
April  30,  18 1 6.     His  father  in  after  years  was  a  wholesale 

155 


156  GEORGE  BOWEN 

merchant,  an  importer  of  dry-goods  in  New  York.  The 
father,  much  attached  to  his  family,  was  of  a  literary  turn 
of  mind  and  collected  an  excellent  library,  by  which  his 
children  greatly  benefited  as  they  grew  up ;  but  his  desire 
for  George  was  that  he  should  acquire  a  good  business 
training,  succeed  him  in  business  and  become  a  successful 
merchant. 

"  At  the  age  of  twelve,  George  was  withdrawn  from 
school  and  taken  into  his  father's  counting-house.  After 
that,  he  never  attended  either  school  or  college.  He  read 
with  avidity  the  books  in  his  father's  library.  At  fourteen, 
he  took  lessons  on  the  piano,  and  when  about  sixteen  years 
of  age  a  great  passion  for  music  took  possession  of  him, 
and  for  a  dozen  years  he  cared  for  nothing  more  than 
Italian  operatic  music.  During  this  period,  his  evenings 
were  spent  in  the  acquisition  of  French,  Italian  and  Span- 
ish, in  which  languages  he  became  quite  proficient. 

"  About  the  age  of  eighteen,  he  became  very  much  dis- 
satisfied with  the  career  which  his  father  had  appointed  for 
him,  chafing  under  his  repugnance  to  a  commercial  life 
and  lamenting  the  meagre  educational  advantages  which 
he  had  enjoyed.  In  October,  1854,  he  received  his 
father's  grudgingly  and  ungraciously  accorded  permission 
to  retire  from  the  mercantile  life  which  he  had  followed 
for  nearly  eight  years,  resolving  to  devote  himself  con 
amore  to  literary  pursuits. 

"It  was  a  short  time  before  abandoning  forever  a  mer- 
cantile career  that  he  became  a  sceptic,  or,  as  he  pre- 
fers to  call  himself,  a  disbeliever.  An  enthusiastic  admirer 
of  Gibbon,  charmed  with  the  dignity  and  suggestiveness  of 
the  great  historian's  style,  he  easily  persuaded  himself  that 
Christianity  was  destitute  of  all  well-founded  claims  to  be 
regarded  as  a  divine  system.     In  the  course  of  a  year  or 


THE  CHRISTIAN  MYSTIC  I57 

two,  he  read  the  works  of  Vohiey,  Voltaire,  Shelley,  Hume, 
Bayle,  and  others  of  kindred  minds,  the  result  being  that 
he  settled  down  into  a  calm  and  confident  acceptance  of 
an  especially  cold  type  of  Deism."  ^ 

We  have  in  Bo  wen's  reminiscences  an  account 
from  his  own  hand  of  these  sceptical  days.  *'  There 
was  a  young  man,"  he  writes,  'S^ery  fond  of  reading, 
who  at  the  age  of  seventeen  was  led  to  doubt  the 
truth  of  Christianity  by  that  chapter  of  Gibbon  in 
which  he  attempts  to  account  for  the  spread  of  the 
Christian  religion  in  the  world.  He  was  acquainted 
with  several  modern  languages,  and  read  in  these  the 
principal  works  in  which  Christianity  is  assailed, — 
Volney,  Voltaire,  Diderot,  and  a  number  of  others. 
He  soon  persuaded  himself  that  Christianity  was  not 
a  revelation  from  God,  that  there  was  no  revelation, 
that  there  might  be  a  God  and  probably  was,  but 
there  was  no  life  to  come,  and  there  could  not  be  a 
more  futile  employment  than  prayer.  His  mind  was 
made  up  on  the  subject,  remained  absolutely  un- 
shaken and  unwavering  in  unbelief  for  eleven  years. 
He  occupied  himself  with  literature  all  these  years, 
and  naturally  read  a  great  deal  that  tallied  with  his 
views ;  whatever  did  not,  made  no  impression  upon 
him,  and  he  only  wondered  how  people  could  be  so 
simple  as  to  believe  things  so  preposterous  and  base- 
less. "With  a  single  exception,  no  one  ever  addressed 
him  on  the  subject  of  personal  religion,  it  being 
thought  by  those  who  knew  him  that  the  fixity  of  his 
views  was  such  as  to  make  the  task  hopeless.  To  a 
friend  who  once  addressed  him  on  the  subject  of  re- 
^  "In  Memoriam,  George  Bowen,"  pp.  11-14. 


158  GEORGE   BOWEN 

ligion,  he  replied  by  a  letter  the  character  of  which 
may  be  gathered  from  the  quotation  which  he  placed 
at  the  head  of  it,  '  Thiukst  thou  that  because  thou  art 
virtuous,  there  shall  be  no  more  cakes  and  ale  ?  Ay, 
by  St.  Anthony  and  ginger  shall  be  hot  in  the  mouth 
too.'  At  a  later  period,  Strauss  came  in  his  way, 
and  what  surprised  him  was  that  the  German  should 
take  such  prodigious  pains  to  disprove  that,  the  falsity 
of  which  lay,  as  it  seemed  to  him,  on  the  very  sur- 
face." ' 

"In  the  summer  of  1836,  George,  accompanied  by  the 
other  members  of  his  father's  family,  went  to  Europe,  the 
period  immediately  preceding  having  been  marked  by 
sundry  manifestations  of  his  liberty-loving  and  enthusiastic 
spirit.  .  .  .  Several  years  of  wide-spread  travel  in 
Europe,  including  a  year  or  so  of  fast  life  in  Paris,  fol- 
lowed. His  journal  contains  extensive  notices  of  the 
places  of  interest  visited.  They  are  most  attractive  read- 
ing, fascinating  at  times  in  their  exquisite  depictive  power. 
Freely  interlarded  we  find  reflections  and  philosophizings 
of  a  most  audacious,  irreverent  and  ofttimes  blasphemous 
character.  Here  is  a  characteristic  extract  from  his  diary 
of  April  16,  1837:  '  Saw  the  sea  at  Terracina  and  ru- 
minated on  the  beach,  cigar  in  mouth,  over  the  vicissitudes 
of  human  events  and  the  nothingness  and  nonsense  of  my 
own  existence.  It  is  a  great  boon  that  God  should  have 
taken  into  His  head  to  put  this  spirit,  soul,  essence  of 
mine  into  a  human  body  and  make  a  creature  of  me,'  and 
more  in  the  same  strain.  A  deep,  overflowing  pessimistic 
current  flows  through  all  his  writings  of  those  unhappy 
years  of  alienation  from  God.  '  My  destiny '  !  he  says, 
*  "  Daily  Meditations,"  Preface,  pp.  v.,  vi. 


THE   CHRISTIAN   MYSTIC  159 

'  inglorious  and  mean  ;  a  bubble  that  breaks  from  the  flood 
in  the  night-time,  no  sun  nor  moon  to  paint  it  with  gay 
hues. '  About  fifty  pages  of  his  journals  of  these  years  of 
European  travel  are  covered  with  notes  of  books,  mostly 
German  and  French.  .  .  .  He  states  that  he  read 
eighty  German  volumes  in  six  months  of  1838,  some  of 
which  he  translated  into  blank  verse  as  well  as  prose. 

"In  1839,  we  find  the  subject  of  our  narrative  in  Upper 
Egypt,  greatly  delighted  with  all  that  he  there  saw,  with 
eyes  ever  open  for  the  beautiful,  the  ancient  and  the  humor- 
ous. Later  in  the  same  year,  he  passed  over  to  Palestine, 
where  he  spent  the  months  of  August  and  September,  and 
after  visiting  Turkey,  Greece  and  Italy,  we  find  him  once 
more  in  Paris  at  the  end  of  the  year.  The  early  part  of 
1840  welcomes  him  back  to  New  York,  whither  his  rela- 
tives had  preceded  him. 

"In  a  few  months,  we  find  him  commencing  and 
abandoning  the  study  of  law  because  of  difficulties  and 
disinclination,  and  finally  beginning  the  composition  of  a 
work  of  fiction,  the  scene  of  which  was  Rome,  the  epoch 
the  early  part  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and  the  principal 
personae  the  distinguished  artists  and  literati  of  that  day. 
After  returning  to  America,  he  continued  to  be  an  om- 
nivorous reader.  ...  At  this  time,  he  became  enam- 
oured of  the  pantheism  of  Spinoza  and  Goethe,  chiefly  on 
the  ground  that  it  shifted  all  the  corruption  of  humanity 
over  upon  God,  naturing  and  natured.  His  poetic  genius 
found  generous  vent  at  this  time  also.  The  effusions, 
mostly  in  blank  verse  and  covering  a  wider  range  of  sub- 
jects, reveal  a  high  order  of  imagination  and  a  deep  philo- 
sophic insight  into  the  nature  of  things.  In  1842  Mr. 
Bowen  read  no  fewer  than  150  large  volumes,  on  105  of 
which  he  made  extensive  notes  ! 


l6o  GEORGE  BOWEN 

"  It  was  in  this  year  also,  that  Bowen  made  the  ac- 
quaintance of  a  lady  who  was  destined  to  exercise  a  greater 
influence  upon  him  than  any  other  living  person.  Beauti- 
ful in  person  and  endowed  with  rare  charms  of  mind  and 
manner,  his  whole  life  was  bound  up  in  her.  In  his  journal 
for  July,  1843,  he  speaks  of  four  days  of  incomparable  en- 
joyment spent  in  her  company,  '  les  plus  beau  jours  de  ma 
vie,'  and  indulges  in  many  daily  flights  of  what  he  terms 
'rhapsody  and  idolatry.'  In  December  of  the  same  year, 
she  was  smitten  with  what  proved  to  be  a  fatal  sickness, 
and  he  was  overwhelmed  with  grief.     .     .     ."  * 

Bowen' 8  fiancee  died  on  the  morning  of  January 
26,  1844,  forty -four  years  almost  to  a  day  before  his 
own  death  in  Bombay.  He  wrote  in  his  diary,  * '  There 
remains  nothing  now  but  the  constant,  perennial, 
hourly  necessity  of  such  preparation  as  shall  ensure 
the  earliest  meeting  in  that  exalted  sphere  to  which 
she  has  gone."  On  February  4th,  he  records  that  he 
received  her  dying  gift,  a  copy  of  the  Bible,  ' '  with 
words  of  benediction  on  the  clasp  and  an  injunction 
from  her  to  read  it  daily  and  also  to  attend  the  house 
of  God."  He  obeyed  this  injunction  out  of  simple 
devotion  to  her  but  before  long  the  great  transforma- 
tion came  to  him.  It  will  be  best  to  let  him  tell  the 
whole  story  in  his  own  words  : 

"  After  eleven  years  of  profoundest  infidelity  [he  says 
of  himself]  he  had  his  attention  drawn  to  the  career  of 
the  apostles,  and  to  the  evidence  afforded  by  the  extra- 
ordinary labours,  sufferings,  successes  of  these  twelve 
men,  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  had  already  risen  from  the 
>  "  In  Memoriam,  George  Bowen,"  pp.  14-19. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  MYSTIC  l6l 

dead  and  ascended  up  on  high.  His  attention  had,  how- 
ever, been  previously  drawn  to  a  remarkable  fact  which 
seemed  to  show  that  the  same  Jesus  Who  was  crucified 
many  centuries  ago  had  power  to  accomplish  things  upon 
the  earth  at  this  day  which  no  mere  man  could  accomplish. 
"There  was  a  young  lady  dying  of  consumption  in  a 
certain  city.  She  was  surrounded  by  all  that  could  make 
life  attractive,  and  it  seemed,  especially  to  the  one  who 
was  much  bound  up  in  her,  one  of  the  saddest  conceivable 
things  that  she  should  go  down  to  a  premature  grave.  She 
herself  would  have  gladly  lived  ;  there  was  a  hope  in  life 
that  death  could  not  offer.  There  was  in  the  same  city,  a 
lady  in  whose  school  she  had  been  a  pupil ;  this  lady  inci- 
dentally heard  that  her  former  pupil  was  dying  and  not 
prepared  to  die.  She  went  to  see  her  but  was  not  allowed 
access  to  the  invalid ;  she  would  not,  however,  be  denied 
but  persisted  and  almost  forced  her  way  to  the  sick  cham- 
ber. The  Lord  blessed  her  ministrations,  and  she  was 
enabled  to  show  the  patient  her  need  of  the  Saviour  and  to 
lead  her  to  Christ.  Then  was  all  fear  of  death  removed; 
the  desire  to  live  left  her ;  the  hopes  that  seemed  to  irradiate 
this  life  shifted  to  the  life  to  come,  but  elevated  and  enriched 
a  thousandfold ;  a  sweet  peace  possessed  her  soul,  and  she 
died  rejoicing  in  the  assured  conviction  that  she  was  going 
to  be  with  Christ.  Whatever  grace  and  beauty  seemed  to 
belong  to  her  in  health  were  eclipsed  by  the  spiritual  grace 
and  loveliness  that  invested  her  last  hours  as  with  a  halo. 
There  was  one  who  would  have  given  all  his  interest  in  life 
to  impart  the  least  alleviation  to  her  pain,  to  have  dimin- 
ished in  the  least  the  sting  of  death ;  but  he  was  made 
most  painfully  conscious  that  this  was  utterly  beyond  his 
power  to  accomplish.  Now  the  fact  that  arrested  his  at- 
tention was  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  Who  had  been  so  long 


1 62  GEORGE  BOWEN 

disregarded  and  scorned  by  him  should  come  to  the  dying 
one  and  give  her  peace  and  sweet  content  and  joy  in  the 
assurance  of  a  bhssful  immortality ;  here  was  something 
marvellous  and  inexplicable.  He  was  bewildered.  The 
effect  wrought  corresponded  only  with  that  which  only  the 
sublimest  truth,  in  connection  with  a  present  divine  power, 
could  accomplish;  it  was  the  removal  of  the  sting  from 
death,  the  bringing  of  life  and  immortality  to  light,  the 
opening  of  a  door  into  a  glorious  and  holy  heaven ;  and 
all  this  heightened  by  contrast  with  his  own  utter  im- 
potency  and  total  penury  of  help.     .     .     . 

"  A  Bible,  bequeathed  to  him  with  a  dying  request  that 
he  would  read  it,  he  received  with  thankfulness  and  pro- 
ceeded to  obey  the  injunction.  He  read  it  and  found 
much  to  admire  in  it ;  valued  it  for  the  comfort  it  had 
bestowed  upon  another;  but  he  never  for  a  moment 
doubted  that  he  was  right  in  his  views  regarding  it,  or 
suspected  that  it  was  really  a  revelation  from  God.  One 
night,  just  before  retiring — this  was  in  March,  1844 — he 
said  aloud  in  his  room,  '  If  there  is  a  God  that  notices  the 
desire  of  men,  I  only  wish  that  He  would  make  known  to 
me  His  will,  and  I  shall  feel  it  my  highest  privilege  to  do 
it  at  whatever  cost.'  He  had  been  brought  to  see  that 
there  was  nothing  more  desirable  than  for  a  man  to  be 
conformed  to  the  will  of  an  All-wise  Creator,  and  also  to 
feel  that  there  must  be  some  divine  guidance  in  order  that 
he  might  know  that  will.  But  immediately  after  that 
ejaculation,  the  thought  arose,  '  How  foolish  to  suppose 
that  God  will  occupy  Himself  with  our  desires  !  '  How- 
ever, the  sequel  showed  that  God  was  pleased  to  hear  that 
bewildered  cry, — that  could  scarcely  be  called  a  prayer. 
Two  or  three  days  afterwards  he  went  to  a  public  library 
from  which  he  was  accustomed  to  take  out  books,  asked  for 


THE   CHRISTIAN   MYSTIC  163 

a  book,  received  one,  put  it  under  his  arm  and  returned 
home.  The  distance  was  about  two  miles.  When  nearly 
home,  he  looked  at  the  book  and  found  to  his  surprise  that 
it  was  Paley's  'Evidences,'  a  very  different  book  from  the 
one  he  had  asked  for.  He  could  not  go  back  to  the  library 
that  day,  and  had  to  keep  the  book  until  he  had  an  oppor- 
tunity of  returning  it.  He  would  not  read  it.  He  knew  all 
about  the  evidences  of  Christianity.  He  had  long  ago  finally 
settled  that  question.  Before  putting  it  away,  however,  he 
glanced  at  the  first  sentence  and  was  arrested  by  it :  *  I  deem 
it  unnecessary  to  prove  that  mankind  stood  in  need  of  a 
revelation,  because  I  have  met  with  no  serious  person  who 
thinks  that  even  under  the  Christian  revelation  we  have 
too  much  light  or  any  degree  of  assurance  that  is  super- 
fluous. Let  it  be  remembered,  too,  that  the  question  lies 
betwixt  this  religion  and  none,  for  if  the  Christian  religion 
be  not  credible,  no  one  with  whom  we  have  to  do  will 
support  the  pretensions  of  any  other.'  He  read  one  page 
and  another  and  another,  was  pleased  with  the  style  and 
candor  of  the  writer,  and  at  last  sat  down  and  read  a  good 
portion  of  the  book.  To  his  surprise  he  found  that  he 
was  beginning  to  take  a  new  view  of  the  evidences,  and 
then  shut  up  the  book  and  put  it  aside,  afraid  of  being 
surprised  into  any  change  of  belief.  He  went  away  for 
a  few  days  into  the  country,  and  on  his  return  resolved  to 
read  the  book  carefully  and  calmly,  and  see  if  there  was 
really  any  reason  to  believe  the  Bible  to  be  from  God. 
When  about  half-way  through  the  book  he  offered  the 
prayer  *  Help  Thou  mine  unbelief.'  When  he  had  reached 
the  last  sentence,  his  doubts  were  all  removed  ;  he  was 
perfectly  convinced  of  the  truth  of  the  Scriptures.  He 
turned  to  Gibbon  and  read  again  the  chapter  which  had 
first  led  him  astray  and  saw  its  sophistries  and  the  weak- 


1 64  GEORGE  BOWEN 

ness  of  its  arguments  most  clearly.  The  Bible  was  now 
God's  book,  but  he  did  not  believe  that  it  contained  the 
doctrine  that  men  pretended  to  find  in  it ;  he  would  read 
it  for  himself,  and  by  himself,  and  see  what  it  really 
taught.  But  he  had  had  a  great  lesson  and  felt  that 
humility  best  became  him ;  he  would  read  it  in  an  humble 
spirit  and  whatever  he  found  there,  he  would  receive,  no 
matter  how  repugnant  it  would  be  to  his  own  ideas. 
Day  after  day,  alone  in  his  room,  communicating  to  none 
the  change  he  had  experienced,  he  read  it  and  by  degrees 
found  there  the  very  doctrine  that  he  had  so  much  dis- 
liked. He  found  that  he  was  a  sinner,  that  he  needed  a 
Saviour ;  that  a  Saviour  was  offered  him.  He  took  this 
Saviour,  yielding  himself  to  His  entire  direction.  He  was 
led  on  publicly  to  confess  his  faith  in  Christ,  and  after 
some  years  he  became  a  missionary  in  India." 

It  was  within  three  or  four  weeks  of  his  conversion 
that  Boweu  fully  resolved  to  be  a  foreign  missionary. 
He  became  an  attendant  at  the  Mercer  Street  Presby- 
terian Church,  of  which  Dr.  Skinner  was  pastor. 
He  was  not  a  man  who  delayed  duty  and  he  went  on 
at  once  to  public  baptism  on  profession  of  faith,  on 
June  9, 1844.  There  are  great  diversities  among  men 
in  this  regard  of  promptitude  of  character.  Some 
suppose  that  there  is  virtue  and  especial  assurance 
of  divine  guidance  in  delinquency.  A  man  who  has 
been  moving  upon  one  course  of  action  preparing  for 
the  practice  of  law  or  contemplating  some  Christian 
service  in  America,  regards  his  pursuance  of  this 
course  as  supplying  so  powerful  a  presumption  in  its 
favour  that  he  cannot  bring  himself  to  make  a  change 
without  long  delay.     In  the  colleges  and  seminaries, 


THE   CHRISTIAN  MYSTIC  165 

one  often  lieara  warnings  against  the  dangers  of  hasty 
decisions  in  the  matter  of  missionary  purpose  ;  as  a 
matter  of  fact  the  contrary  danger  is  ten  times 
greater.  After  all,  a  decision  is  made  in  an  instant. 
It  may  have  taken  weeks  or  years  to  come  up  to  it 
and  the  consequences  are  eternal,  but  the  decision 
itself  was  instantaneous.  Bowen  was  no  delinquent. 
When  he  saw,  he  did.  Will  instantly  caught  up  the 
movements  of  conscience  and  moral  judgment  and 
solidified  them  in  action.  His  later  life  in  this  re- 
gard resembled  the  beginning.  He  promptly  obeyed 
every  gleam  of  new  and  as  it  seemed  to  him  larger 
duty. 

When  he  had  formed  his  missionary  purpose, 
Bowen  spoke  to  Dr.  Skinner  and  others  about  it. 
He  had  supposed  at  first  that  "  there  would  be  noth- 
ing to  hinder  him  from  going  at  once  just  as  he  was, 
with  his  Bible  under  his  arm."  He  was  advised 
however  to  go  to  the  Union  Theological  Seminary 
and  accepted  the  advice.  He  had  had  no  college 
course,  so  he  studied  Greek  at  once  alone,  and  began 
without  delay  active  Christian  work.  He  led  a  Sun- 
day-school class,  and  "  worked  a  district  as  tract 
distributor  and  earnestly  sought  to  equip  himself  for 
his  life-work  uuder  the  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
and  judiciously  advised  by  kind  friends."  It  is 
worth  while  to  observe  George  Bowen' s  readiness  to 
receive  help  from  others.  All  his  life,  he  was  a 
man  of  positive  opinions,  who  saw  his  duty  for  him- 
self and  did  it,  but  he  was  a  man  amenable  to  reason, 
who  checked  his  own  disposition  by  revelation  of 
duty  through  others. 

About  the  time  of  his  entering  the  seminary,  he 


1 66  GEORGE  BOWEN 

broke  off  the  habit  of  smoking,  without  solicitatioii 
or  suggestion  from  any  oue.  The  habit  had  become 
very  firm  aud  enthralling  and  he  simply  resolved  to 
throw  it  off.  He  succeeded  in  delivering  himself  by 
using  for  a  time,  by  set  purpose,  the  cheapest  and 
worst  tobacco.  With  tobacco  Bowen  stopped  pro- 
fanity and  cut  off  absolutely  all  use  of  intoxicants, 
**  believing  that  the  spirit  of  the  New  Testament 
favoured  total  abstinence." 

He  was  constantly  drawing  his  life  up  to  the 
highest.  That  purpose  will  settle  a  hundred  little 
questions  of  habit  and  practical  living  for  men. 
Men  who  are  of  mediocre  spiritual  ambition  can  find 
adequate  reasons  for  petty  squalor  of  personal  habit 
and  can  live  with  their  moral  self-approval  on  a 
plane  that  would  be  impossible  to  them  if  they  asked 
not,  ''Must  I  give  this  up?"  but  *'May  I  not  free 
myself  from  this  also  and  enter  into  a  larger 
liberty?" 

During  his  seminary  course,  Bowen  was  constantly 
at  work.  He  did  not  postpone  missionary  service 
because  his  present  sphere  was  not  as  large  as  the 
sphere  he  contemplated.  He  realized  that  the  only 
possible  preparation  for  many  kinds  of  work  is  to  do 
them,  and  to  be  a  winner  of  souls  in  India  ten  years 
in  the  future  he  knew  that  he  must  be  a  winner  of 
souls  where  he  was.  There  is  no  spiritual  alchemy 
in  a  sea  voyage  that  will  make  a  missiouary  out  of  a 
man  who  is  not  already  one  before  he  goes.  During 
his  summers,  Bowen  worked  with  his  friend  and 
fellow  student  Mr.  Ford,  afterwards  a  missionary  in 
Syria,  in  Pike  County,  Pennsylvania,  visiting  the 
farmers,  offering  books  in  behalf  of  the  Bible  and 


THE  CHRISTIAN   MYSTIC  167 

Tract  Societies,  talking  about  Christ  and  praying 
from  house  to  house  as  there  was  opportunity.  In 
the  seminary  also,  he  was  a  Christian  of  the  sincerest 
type.  He  did  not  coquet  with  the  world.  He  lived 
his  religion.  Young  men  in  theological  seminaries 
speak  of  the  difficulty  of  maintaining  warm  spiritual 
life  in  the  atmosphere  of  the  seminary,  and  there 
have  been  students  in  such  seminaries  who  seemed 
to  regard  the  deeper  religious  duty  as  irksome  and 
who  evidently  were  postponing  for  a  time  the  full 
practice  of  the  Christian  life.  Men  and  institutions 
vary  and  one  generation  is  worse  or  better  than  its 
predecessor,  but  there  is  room  enough  still  in  all  our 
seminaries  for  men  who  will  live  as  Bowen  lived. 
He  was  not  the  type  of  theological  student  that  he 
was  through  the  calculation  that  he  must  be  that 
type  if  he  would  later  exert  the  largest  positive 
spiritual  influence,  but  later  he  was  the  profound 
spiritual  power  that  he  was  in  India  and  throughout 
the  world  because  of  that  character  in  him  which  had 
expressed  itself  in  sincere  and  earnest  Christian  liv- 
ing and  working  in  the  seminary.  Men  do  what 
they  do  because  they  are  what  they  are.  Absolute 
freedom  of  the  will  is  an  untrue  doctrine.  We  see 
around  us  every  day  its  refutation  in  the  determinism 
of  character  which  we  find  whenever  we  will  look  in 
ourselves  and  in  all  men.  And  there  is  no  greater 
folly  than  to  suppose  that  men  can  prepare  them- 
selves flippantly  for  life  and  not  enter  life  in  con- 
sequence with  flippant  characters,  destitute  of  the 
power  of  lofty  sacrifice  or  spiritual  sensibilities  like 
George  Bowen' s.  ''While  at  the  theological  semi- 
nary," says  the  Eev.  J.  E.  Eobinson,  "he  was  in 


1 68  GEORGE  BOWEN 

the  truest  sense  a  missionary,  ever  seeking  the  con- 
version of  souls  in  the  outside  world,  as  opportunity 
served,  and  also  helping  many  a  fellow  student  into 
the  full  enjoyment  of  the  gospel  salvation.  He  was 
the  leading  spirit  in  the  prayer  and  experience  meet- 
ings among  the  students,  in  all  things  and  at  all  times 
seeking  first  the  kingdom  of  God,  while  at  the  same 
time  a  diligent  and  conscientious  student." 

In  the  seminary  those  deeper  experiences  of  the 
Christian  life  began  with  Bowen  which  were  to  issue 
in  the  singularly  powerful  spiritual  character  of  the 
future.  The  4th  of  December,  1845,  is  noted  in  his 
journal  as  the  beginning  of  a  new  era  in  his  life  and 
spiritual  experience.  Of  this  he  writes  in  the  third 
person. 

"  Nothing  in  heaven  and  earth  astonished  him  more 
than  the  discovery  made  on  that  day  that  Jesus  was  his 
sanctification,  and  that  all  he  had  to  do  was  to  abide  in 
Him  as  the  branch  in  the  vine,  and  the  goodness  of  Christ 
would  sway  him  moment  by  moment,  and  it  would  always 
be  Christ's  goodness  and  not  his  own,  for  there  is  none 
good  save  one,  that  is  God.  .  .  .  When  the  discovery 
was  made,  he  was  filled  with  wonder,  love  and  praise,  but 
also  with  a  sense  of  the  need  of  perpetual  vigilance,  lest  at 
any  time  he  should  forget  his  absolute  dependence  on 
Christ.  He  felt  that  he  must  watch  against  everything 
which  could  in  any  way  weaken  his  sense  of  dependence. 
He  felt  that  he  was  under  law  to  Christ  in  eating,  drinking, 
sleeping,  study  and  conversation  ;  that  he  must  habitually 
stand  ready  to  cut  off  a  right  hand,  to  secure  the  continued 
realization  of  Christ's  love.  All  self-denial  now  became 
easy ;  the  sense  of  God's  love  filled  him  with  joy  unspeak- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  MYSTIC  169 

able,  and  he  valued  nothing  more  than  the  opportunity  of 
expressing  his  own  love  in  return." 

On  April  19,  1847,  he  preached  for  the  first  time  in 
the  pulpit  and  he  preached  three  times.  He  ' '  was  sus- 
tained,"  he  writes,  ''but  was  disappointed  in  the  re- 
sults .  .  .  yet  favoured  in  one  respect — freedom 
from  reflex  acts."  Throughout  there  was  in  him 
a  rich  combination  of  deep  introspection  and  of 
calm  faith  in  the  objective  facts  of  salvation  in 
Christ. 

Having  been  duly  accepted  and  appointed  by  the 
American  Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Mis- 
sions, Mr.  Bowen  left  New  York  for  Boston,  July  27, 
1847,  and  embarked  from  the  latter  port  on  an  ice- 
ship  four  days  later,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Wood  his  only 
fellow  passengers,  being,  like  himself,  bound  for 
Bombay.  At  once  he  began  to  work  among  the  crew, 
earnestly  seeking  to  lead  them  individually  to  Christ. 
He  also  began  the  study  of  Marathi.  These  days  on 
shipboard  were  days  of  prayer  and  heart-searching 
and  growth  in  grace.  God  was  girding  him  for  his 
forty  years'  service  in  Bombay.  His  faith  was  grow- 
ing exceedingly  as  he  learned  Christ.  He  read  many 
works  of  religious  biography  and  history  during  the 
voyage.  In  his  journal  for  December  is  a  remark 
which  may  be  regarded  as  the  key  to  his  whole  life. 
"It  appears  to  me  now,"  he  writes,  "that  the  high- 
est style  of  Christian  in  God's  sight  is  one  who  lives 
in  the  wise  exercise  of  all  his  powers,  sparing  him- 
self not  at  all,  doing  all  to  produce  great  and  imme- 
diate results,  yet  esteeming  that  in  God's  favour  is 
his  life  repining  not,  when  there  is  no  appearance  of 


lyo  GEORGE   BOWEN 

fruit,  and  willing  to  be  thought  unprofitable  by  the 
Church." 

Bombay  was  reached  January  19,  1848,  after  a 
voyage  of  172  days. 

Bowen  at  once  took  up  the  language,  employing 
two  pundits,  each  of  whom  gave  him  an  hour  and  a 
half  daily.  The  spirit  of  the  man  is  shown  in  a 
sentence  or  two  from  his  letter  of  March  31,  1848,  to 
his  friend,  the  Eev.  William  Aikman. 


"  I  was  thinking  this  morning  that  here  thirty-two 
years  of  my  life  had  rolled  away,  and  I  had  not  yet  begun 
to  live.  That  is,  to  work — for  to  work  is  to  live.  All  my 
past  life  has  been  a  long  and  strangely  circuitous  avenue 
to  my  present  position,  a  wandering  maze  whose  issue 
God  alone  discerned.  Only  to  think  of  it,  thirty-two  solid 
years  cast  away,  and  who  knows  whether  my  allotted  time 
is  not  comprehended  in  them.  Surely  if  any  individual 
should  resolve  to  do  with  might  what  his  hand  findeth  to 
do,  that  purpose  should  be  mine.  But  after  all  it  is  not 
time  that  we  want  so  much.  If  the  choice  were  now 
offered  me  to  live  twenty-five  years  with  my  present  meas- 
ure of  grace,  or  to  live  six  months  with  that  measure  of 
the  Spirit's  influence  which  I  sometimes  crave  from  God,  I 
would  certainly  choose  the  last.  Yes,  I  believe  that  three 
days  with  the  baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost  will  be  of  more 
value  to  this  unhappy  world  than  the  longest  life  of  medi- 
ocre piety." 

From  the  beginning,  Bowen' s  remarkable  journals 
are  full  of  reflections  on  all  questions  of  missionary 
policy,  especially  one  of  great  interest  in  which  Bowen 


THE   CHRISTIAN   iMYSTIC  I7I 

■was  the  forerunner  of  many  later  earnest  missionaries 
who  felt  the  constraint  of  the  same  spirit.  ' '  From 
the  very  first,"  he  writes  of  himself,  '*  the  idea  of  a 
very  simple  style  of  living,  approximating  that  of 
the  natives,  was  before  his  mind,  and  he  freely  ex- 
pressed his  conviction  that  one  way  in  which  the 
gulf  between  the  natives  and  Christian  missionaries 
might  be  bridged  was  by  the  latter  ceasing  to  occupy 
in  worldly  respects  a  superior  position  to  the  former. 
His  conviction  was  deepened  by  the  perusal  of  Ed- 
ward Irving' s  famous  missionary  sermon,  preached 
before  the  London  Missionary  Society  some  time 
previously." 

At  the  outset  of  his  missionary  life,  however,  two 
temptations  came  to  him  to  leave  the  work,  before  he 
had  opportunity  to  develop  his  theory  about  the 
manner  of  a  missionary's  life.  One  temptation 
sprang  from  the  sense  of  duty  to  his  mother  and  sis- 
ters at  home  left  unprovided  for  by  the  death  of  his 
father,  who  with  his  two  sisters  had  become  believers 
the  same  year  with  himself.  Many  men  in  Bo  wen's 
position  would  have  seen  in  this  providence  a  war- 
rant for  return  to  America,  and  some  doubtless 
justly  ;  but  there  are  many  to  whom  such  temptations 
come  merely  as  trials  of  faith  and  new  discipline  into 
robustness  of  character.  Bowen  felt  this  news  to  be 
just  such  a  temptation  to  him  and  trusting  God  to 
solve  the  problem  of  the  family's  support,  he  re- 
mained in  India,  saving,  however,  about  twenty  dol- 
lars per  month  out  of  his  salary  to  aid  his  mother 
and  sisters.  I  believe  myself,  not  that  too  much  is 
made  of  family  ties, — that  would  be  impossible — but 
that  they  are  allowed  too  much  to  hamper  Christian 


172  GEORGE   BOWEN 

work  and  that  many  men  and  women  plead  as  an 
evidence  of  exemption  from  missionary  work  claims 
that  in  God's  sight  and  the  light  of  such  high  moral 
principle  as  ruled  Bo  wen's  life  are  not  valid  claims 
at  all. 

The  other  temptation  sprang  from  the  condition  of 
his  health.  In  August,  1848,  he  "  was  prostrated  by 
an  affection  of  the  liver  and  of  the  windpipe.  He 
declined  very  rapidly,  insomuch  that  he  was  given 
over  to  die  by  his  physicians  and  all  who  saw  him. 
He  himself  even  wrote  home  announcing  his  ap- 
proaching death.  A  few  days  after  doing  so,  he 
began  to  mend,  and  his  physicians  urgently  advised 
that  he  leave  the  country  immediately.  This,  how- 
ever, he  refused  to  do,  hoping  that  the  Lord  would 
eventually  fully  and  permanently  restore  him.  The 
Lord  saw  fit  to  order  it  so,  and  the  one  who  was  de- 
clared by  able  physicians,  under  their  hands  and 
seals,  to  be  absolutely  unequal  to  further  residence 
and  labour  in  India,  lived  and  laboured  with  inde- 
fatigable energy  for  forty  years,  without  lengthy  sea 
voyage,  furlough,  residence  in  the  hills,  change  of 
climate,  or  other  means  generally  considered  indis- 
pensable to  prolonged  stay  in  the  tropics."  The 
various  means  employed  for  the  maintenance  of 
physical  health  and  spiritual  tone  in  mission  fields 
such  as  those  just  mentioned  are  wise  and  necessary, 
but  they  can  be  both  under  and  overused,  and  it  is  a 
good  thing  often  to  turn  back  to  the  lives  of  men 
like  Bowen  and  Judson  and  see  how  vigorously  inde- 
pendent these  men  were  of  them,  and  how  with  them 
the  work  was  supremely  first,  and  puny  questions  of  a 
few  months'  extra  furlough,  or  this  or  that  other  small 


THE  CHRISTIAN   MYSTIC  1 73 

comfort,  beneath  their  world.  Bowen  was  right  and 
wise  too,  in  refusing  to  leave  lightly  the  work  for 
which  he  had  been  sent  out,  even  with  a  physician's 
certificate  advising  his  return.  When  missionaries 
once  reach  their  fields,  at  great  expense  to  the  home 
Church  and  presumably  under  the  guidance  of  God, 
no  light  reason  should  bring  them  home.  Often  there 
must  be  physical  readjustment,  but  as  an  old  mis- 
sionary lady  in  China  once  said  to  me,  "  Let  the  new 
missionaries  go  slowly.  They  may  not  be  as  well 
here  as  at  home,  but  if  they  can  live  here  at  all,  let 
them  stay.  They  will  get  broken  in  if  they  have  pa- 
tience and  courage."  Bo  wen  refused  to  leave  the 
field  and  he  lived  and  worked  in  India  for  forty 
years. 

Eemaining  in  India,  he  took  up  the  two  questions 
of  the  mode  of  life  of  the  missionary  and  his  spiritual 
example  and  influence.  He  wrote  in  his  journal,  "  I 
want  to  have  Christ  walking  about  the  streets  of 
Bombay  as  He  did  about  those  of  Jerusalem  and  liv- 
ing among  this  people  as  He  did  among  the  Jews. 
He  was  emphatically  the  friend  of  the  people.  They 
were  His  family.  His  home.  ...  I  want  to  have 
Jesus  the  Missionary  in  my  mind's  eye  continually. 
It  will  be  a  blessed  day  when  I  feel  at  home  in  these 
streets  and  can  linger  in  them  without  any  desire 
save  to  continue  preaching  the  Word.     .     .     ." 

"It  was  strongly  borne  in  upon  his  soul,"  says 
Bishop  Robinson,  "that  it  was  his  duty  and  privilege 
to  authenticate  his  divine  commission  to  the  ignorant 
people  among  whom  he  toiled  with  so  little  success 
by  *  signs  following.'  The  references  in  his  journal  are 
scanty  and  somewhat  vague,  but  it  seems  that  after 


174  GEORGE  BOWEN 

days  and  nights  of  prayer  and  study  of  the  Word,  he 
on  one  occasion  essayed  the  healing  of  a  sick  or  dis- 
abled person  by  a  command  of  faith  and  was  signally 
unsuccessfnl.  He  was  greatly  humbled  and  con- 
founded, but  God  held  him  in  the  hollow  of  His 
hand,  and  he  suffered  no  eclipse  of  faith.  He  never, 
however,  abandoned  the  conviction  that  the  miracle- 
working  power  was  recoverable  by  the  Church  and 
ought  to  be  an  adjunct  for  missionary  labours  among 
idolatrous  peoples ;  but  we  do  not  find  any  further 
attempts  on  his  part  to  manifest  or  exert  this  power, 
though  he  appears  to  have  sought  it  with  prayer  and 
fasting  and  many  tears." 

The  practical  measure  which  he  soon  came  to  be- 
lieve it  his  duty  to  adopt  was  the  surrender  of  his 
salary  and  the  attempt  to  live  among  the  natives  in 
a  style  of  simplicity  and  renunciation  of  earthly  com- 
forts to  indicate  the  utter  unworldliness  of  the  mo- 
tives of  the  missionary  and  the  disinterestedness  of 
his  aims.  In  January,  1849,  after  having  been  in  the 
country  one  year,  he  wrote  a  letter  to  the  missionaries 
throughout  India,  urging  his  views.  It  would  doubt- 
less be  regarded  as  more  presumptuous  now  in  a  mis- 
sionary yearling  to  do  this  than  it  was  then.  The 
body  of  missionary  practice  and  precedent  has  grown 
and  solidified  greatly  in  these  years,  but  Bo  wen's 
course  was  rash  enough.  His  own  actions,  how- 
ever, were  not  to  be  determined  by  what  others  did. 
As  he  writes:  *'By  the  grace  of  God!  I  will  put 
myself  in  a  position  where  all  men  shall  see  that  I 
am  the  disinterested  servant  of  Christ.  By  the  help 
of  God,  I  will  honour  the  Gospel  and  conform  myself 
to  it  with  all  strictness." 


THE   CHRISTIAN   MYSTIC  I75 

In  accordance  with  this  purpose,  Mr.  Bowen,  on 
February  13,  1849,  resigned  his  missionary's  salary, 
amounting  then  to  ninety  rupees  per  month,  left  the 
mission  house,  and  took  up  his  abode  in  a  little  room 
of  an  old  pensioner's  mud- walled  house  near  Waree 
Bunder,  under  Nowrojee  Hill,  in  the  midst  of  a  com- 
munity composed  entirely  of  Portuguese  and  natives. 
The  house  has  long  since  been  swept  away  and  the 
whole  neighbourhood  altered.  His  journal  of  this 
date  has  the  following  :  "At  length,  thanks  be  to 
God,  I  am  in  that  situation  which  I  have  so  long  de- 
sired to  be  in.  The  Lord  did  not  more  truly  guide 
me  to  India  than  He  has  guided  me  to  this  humble 
spot.  Were  the  Apostle  Paul  in  Bombay,  I  should 
be  far  more  content  in  receiving  him  where  I  now 
am  than  where  I  have  hitherto  been.  .  .  .  On 
opening  my  Bible  the  first  text  that  met  my  eye  was, 
'  Now  there  was  found  in  it  a  poor  wise  man,  and  he 
by  his  wisdom  delivered  the  city.'  " 

In  his  later  reminiscences,  he  refers  quietly  to  this 
self-denial,  again  speaking  in  the  third  person : 
* '  After  spending  about  a  year  in  India,  he  was  led 
to  believe  that  his  influence  would  be  greater  if  he 
were  not  in  the  receipt  of  a  salary  from  a  missionary 
society,  and  since  January,  1849,  he  has  received  no 
salary  from  any  quarter.  For  some  years  he  earned 
his  livelihood  by  giving  an  hour  daily  to  private 
tuition  ;  for  a  still  longer  period,  he  has  trusted  to 
the  Lord  to  supply  his  need,  without  such  occupa- 
tion. It  is  unnecessary  to  say  that  he  has  enough 
and  to  spare."  This  work  of  private  tuition  lasted 
for  twelve  years.  Thereafter,  he  depended  as  he 
says  upon  the  Lord,  the  earnings  of  his  editorship  of 


176  GEORGE   BOWEN 

the  Bombay   Guardian  probably  not  relieving  the 
Lord  greatly  ! 

But  what  a  curiously  un-Christian  conception  this 
is !  It  was  the  Lord  supporting  Boweu  through  the 
American  Board  as  truly  as  through  small  charities 
in  Bombay.  The  fact  that  the  sparrow  goes  out  and 
gathers  his  food  does  not  in  the  least  alter  the  fact 
that  it  is  the  Lord  Who  feeds  the  sparrows.  "What 
Paul  earned  from  the  sale  of  his  tents,  it  was  the 
Lord  Who  gave  him.  The  use  of  means  and  effort  on 
the  part  of  believers  does  not  diminish  at  all  the 
reality  or  the  immediacy  of  the  Lord's  influence  and 
active  present  care.  George  Bowen  depended  no 
more  on  the  Lord  than  Bishop  Thoburu,  or  Dr.  D.  L. 
Anderson  of  Soochow  depended  on  Him.  Bowen 
may  have  felt  that  he  was  more  directly  dependent 
upon  God,  but  many  other  men  may  have  as  great  a 
feeling  of  dependence  who  yet  see  the  Lord's  hand 
giving  them  what  comes  through  the  missionary 
agency  with  which  they  are  connected.  Doubtless, 
many  do  not  depend  upon  the  Lord  who  use  means 
and  organization  ;  but  the  use  of  means  and  organi- 
zation is  not  responsible  for  their  want  of  dependence. 
That  is  their  inner  spiritual  deficiency.  Dependence 
upon  the  Lord  makes  some  means  unjustifiable,  but 
not  the  use  of  means.  The  missionary  organization 
which  most  emphasizes  the  thought  of  direct  depend- 
ence upon  God  and  which  shows  forth  the  beauty 
and  sufiSciency  of  such  dependence  is  probably  the 
most  diligent  society  in  the  world  in  making  known 
its  work,  publishing  books  about  its  history,  and 
setting  forth  the  vast  needs  of  the  field  which  it  is 
endeavouring  to  reach.     Instead  of  doing  wrong  in 


THE  CHRISTIAN  MYSTIC  1 77 

thi8,  it  is  pursuing  the  most  Christian  course  possible. 
It  does  not  believe  that  depending  upon  God  requires 
cessation  of  efifort  or  disuse  of  means. 

In  Bo  wen' 8  case,  doubtless  the  surrender  of  all 
regular  support  did  help  to  strengthen  the  sense  of 
immediate  dependence  upon  God,  although  it  did  not 
increase  at  all  his  real  dependence.  He  hoped  also 
that  it  would  greatly  increase  his  missionary  influence. 
In  later  years,  he  often  confessed  that  he  was  greatly 
disappointed  as  to  the  effect  which  he  had  expected 
would  be  produced  upon  the  natives  by  his  course. 
And  as  a  general  rule  of  missionary  conduct.  Bo  wen's 
plan  is  not  practicable.  *' Living  as  the  natives"  is 
not  a  clear  proposal.  Which  of  the  natives?  In 
mission  fields  in  Asia  and  South  America,  there  are 
all  sorts  and  grades  of  natives.  As  to  naked  Africans, 
the  rule  is  obviously  impossible.  But  as  to  India,  it 
is  equally  so,  if  by  native  is  meant  the  poorest  class. 
The  physical  constitution  of  the  Western  man  cannot 
live  on  that  level.  Centuries  of  heredity  lie  back 
of  the  Indian  villager  who  lives  with  his  family  on 
two  or  three  dollars  a  month,  and  whose  household 
furniture  and  wearing  apparel  could  be  purchased 
for  five  dollars.  "  Living  on  the  level  of  the  native 
is  not  a  matter  of  consecration,"  as  one  missionary 
put  it;  "it  is  a  matter  of  stomach,"  and  it  simply 
cannot  be  done.  At  the  other  extreme,  of  course, 
there  are  Hindus  and  Mohammedans  in  India  who 
live  as  princes.  It  is  true  that  the  missionary  lives 
far  above  the  level  of  the  class  of  natives  with  which 
he  associates,  but  that  is  a  simple  physical  necessity. 

Furthermore,  as  a  rule,  the  effect  of  trying  to  live 
on  the  level  of  the  poorest  of  the  Indian  fakirs  or 


1 78  GEORGE  BOWEN 

holy  men  is  not  what  the  theory  assumes.  Bowen, 
■who  never  got  down  to  that  level,  admitted  this.  It 
is  not  manner  of  living  that  wins  or  repels  in  Bombay 
or  in  Nashville.  It  is  the  spirit  of  heart  and  life 
represented  in  the  manner  of  living,  and  Hunter 
Corbett,  living  simply  but  as  the  requirements  of 
health  and  efficiency  necessitate,  draws  nearer  to 
his  Chinese  and  has  won  more  of  them  to  Christ  than 
Bowen  did  in  Bombay  among  his  Hindus  and 
Parsees. 

"Living  like  the  natives"  is  a  much  used  phrase 
among  missionary  critics  and  independent  mission- 
aries. There  is  a  good  deal  of  unreal  fetichism  about 
it.  The  germ  of  truth  which  it  contains  is  the  truth 
at  the  bottom  of  the  whole  missionary  enterprise,  the 
truth  of  the  Incarnation  itself.  To  reach  people,  we 
must  go  to  them,  love  them,  win  their  love,  draw  as 
close  to  them  as  we  can.  To  do  this,  simplicity, 
frugality  and  perfect  sincerity  of  life  will  be  necessary. 
That  is  all.  And  this  is  a  lesson  for  us  as  well  as  for 
the  missionary.  For  the  question  of  moral  and 
economic  principle  involved  is  the  same  here  as  there. 
In  America  as  truly  as  in  India  the  doubt  must  often 
come  to  men  as  to  whether  they  should  not  literally 
forsake  all  and  follow  Christ,  give  away  their  prop- 
erty, lay  up  no  money,  adopt  the  practice  of  St. 
Francis  of  Assisi  and  go  out  absolutely  free,  without 
a  burden  or  a  tie,  save  the  love  of  Christ.  The  in- 
equalities in  the  distribution  of  wealth  are  so  glaring 
and  so  terribly  unfair.  The  economic  system  is  so 
obviously  unsatisfactory.  The  multitudes  of  the 
needy  are  separated  so  widely  from  the  affluent  and 
the  luxurious.     Even  among  the  merely  well-to-do 


THE  CHRISTIAN  MYSTIC  1 79 

the  scale  of  living  is  so  overwrought  and  the  com- 
plexity of  life  so  confusing.  Why  not  cut  loose  from 
it  all  by  the  one  decisive  surrender  of  asceticism? 
"Let  us  do  it,"  said  Tolstoy.  Well,  we  cannot,  for 
a  score  of  reasons.  We  have  our  children.  We  have 
no  right  to  exact  of  them  the  toll  for  our  spiritual 
and  economic  vagrancy.  We  are  in  an  order  and  we 
must  redeem  the  order  and  not  run  away  from  it. 
We  have  a  whole  world  of  nature  and  of  men  to  save 
and  we  may  not  go  off  alone  to  save  our  own  souls. 
The  solution  of  asceticism  is  too  selfish,  too  irrespon- 
sible. But  if  we  reject  this  ideal,  we  can  do  so  only 
by  the  more  earnestly  accepting  the  law  of  service 
which  sees  in  all  that  we  have,  not  a  personal  pos- 
session, but  a  means  of  human  ministry  and  a  trust 
to  be  administered  for  Christ  and  for  men. 

Bowen's  renewed  consecration  of  his  life  and  his 
effort  to  lay  himself  completely  upon  the  divine  care 
was  followed  by  days  of  anxious  inquiry  and  earnest 
desire  for  unequivocal  manifestations  of  the  power 
of  God  to  accompany  his  preaching  of  the  Gospel  to 
the  nations.  "He  spent  hours  of  the  nights  in 
prayer,  fasted  for  long  periods — in  one  instance  for 
a  fortnight — and  in  response  to  a  profound  impres- 
sion, made  upon  his  mind  in  meditation  on  the  char- 
acter of  Christ,  he  gave  away  every  penny  he  had  in 
the  world.  The  20th  of  March  of  this  year,  1849, 
proved  another  important  era  in  his  spiritual  life. 
He  writes  of  it  as  the  greatest  day  in  his  whole  life. 
'  I  entered,'  he  says,  '  upon  a  religious  experience  far 
higher  than  any  before  attained  to.  Its  character- 
istic is  self-annihilation  and  a  wonderful  revelation 
of  God  in  the  place  of  myself.'     The  immanence  of 


l8o  GEORGE  BOWEN 

God  in  his  natural  creation,  the  absolute  dependence 
of  the  creature  upon  God,  the  power,  wisdom  and 
goodness  of  God  as  exhibited  in  the  works  of  His 
hands,  were  unfolded  to  his  mind  in  a  manner  that 
filled  him  with  unutterable  joy,  peace  and  love." 

In  the  spirit  of  this  new  experience,  deepening  year 
by  year,  Bowen  carried  on  his  work  in  Bombay.  In 
1851,  the  Bombay  Guardian  was  established  with 
Bowen  as  an  associate  editor.  After  three  years,  he 
undertook  whole  charge.  The  paper  was  discon- 
tinued for  a  time,  but  later  was  revived  and  his  sin- 
gular abilities  made  it  a  paper  of  great  power,  his  con- 
nection with  it  continuing  through  the  rest  of  his  life. 

His  literary  work  included  much  more  than  the 
Guardian  though  that  was  enough.  My  friend,  Mr. 
Henry  W.  Rankin,  in  sending  me  a  valuable  set  of 
the  bound  volumes  of  the  Guardian  for  the  last  ten 
years  of  Bowen' s  life,  wrote  of  them,  "They  not  only 
contain  the  reminiscences  (of  Bowen's early  life  which 
he  wrote  under  the  pseudonym  of  Homunculus  in  the 
third  person)  but  his  invaluable  editorials  on  an  im- 
mense range  of  subjects,  political,  philosophical, 
ecclesiastical,  discovery,  the  ethnic  religions,  the 
Brahmo  Samaj,  and  all  other  experiments  of  eclectic 
religion  in  India.  The  papers  contain,"  added  Mr. 
Rankin,  "a  consecutive  commentary  on  all  of  John's 
Gospel  and  all  of  Revelation.  They  are  crowded  with 
the  richest  ore  of  gold  and  seamed  with  beds  of  dia- 
monds." 

How  rich  Bowen's  comments  on  Scripture  were,  all 
know  who  have  read  his  three  best  known  books, 
"Love  Revealed,"  "The  Amens  of  Christ,"  and 
"  Daily  Meditations."     Many  books  of  devotion  have 


THE  CHRISTIAN  MYSTIC  l8l 

blessed  the  Church,  but  few  have  blessed  more  hearts 
or  helped  them  more  deeply  than  these  sincere,  noble- 
minded  outpourings  of  Bo  wen's  experience  of  the 
love  and  life  of  the  loving  and  living  Christ. 

Beside  his  literary  work  and  doubtless  transcend- 
ing it  in  importance,  in  Bo  wen's  view,  he  was  con- 
stantly preaching.  In  1854,  he  wrote  to  Dr.  Ander- 
son of  the  American  Board,  "  I  continue  to  preach  in 
the  streets  and  wherever  the  people  so  congregate 
that  I  can  quietly  talk  to  them.  Occasionally,  I  am 
maltreated  or  am  mobbed.  But  I  do  not  suffer  my 
mind  to  dwell  on  those  occasional  unpleasantnesses." 

In  1871,  William  Taylor,  known  all  over  the  world 
as  Bishop  Taylor,  began  his  mission  in  India  and 
Bowen  at  once  gave  him  his  hearty  support,  becom- 
ing one  of  the  leaders  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  and  devoting  to  it  his  great  talents  thence- 
forth until  his  death  in  1888.  Bishop  Taylor  re- 
garded Bowen  with  deep  reverence,  saying  once  re- 
garding him  to  Dr.  Aikman,  ''George  Bowen  was 
the  Lamb  of  India."  And  whether  or  not  the  people 
for  whom  he  lived  and  died,  always  with  the  spirit  of 
the  Lamb  of  God,  responded  to  his  message,  they  did 
respond  to  his  love.  The  editorial  which  appeared  in 
Tlie  Times  of  India,  on  February  11th  of  the  year  he 
died,  1888,  though  coming  from  Englishmen  and  ap- 
pearing in  the  leading  secular  English  paper  of 
Bombay,  yet  expressed  the  general  feeling  of  the 
entire  community.  The  editorial  is  too  long  to  allow 
the  quotation  of  more  than  a  few  sentences. 

"The  death  of  the  Rev.  George  Bowen,  the  tidings  of 
which  passed  rapidly  through  our  city  on  the  5th  inst.,  has 


l82  GEORGE   BOWEN 

deprived  this  community  of  one  of  its  oldest  and  most 
widely  honoured  members.  The  sorrow  awakened  by  his 
unexpected  removal  is  not  confined  to  any  one  section  of 
the  Christian  Church,  or  to  any  one  class  of  the  com- 
munity. One  who  has  for  forty  years  occupied  a  unique 
place  as  a  missionary  among  us  has  passed  away,  and  the 
sense  of  loss  is  intensified  by  the  feeling,  present  doubtless 
to  the  minds  of  all  who  knew  him,  that  the  place  of  George 
Bowen  will  always  remain  empty.  His  was  a  work  and  a 
personality  sui  generis,  and  in  the  ordinary  acceptation  of 
the  word,  he  can  have  no  successor.  The  removal  of 
George  Bowen  marks  the  close  of  an  epoch  in  the  history  of 
our  community. 

'*  George  Bowen  was  a  man  of  rare  individuality.  In 
any  community  this  individuality  would  have  asserted  it- 
self, but  in  a  community  like  ours,  in  which  the  conditions 
of  society  so  manifestly  tend  to  the  levelling  down  of  all 
men  to  the  same  tone  of  thinking  and  action,  a  man  who 
could  stand  alone,  who  could  mould  his  life  according  to 
his  own  high  convictions  of  responsibility,  and  who  felt 
bound  by  no  artificial  standards,  could  not  but  stand  forth 
as  a  conspicuous  personality.  Hence  it  was  that  many  a 
visitor  passing  through  our  city,  intent  upon  noting  not 
merely  the  outward  features  of  our  life  in  Western  India, 
but  also  the  moral  forces  which  are  at  work  among  us, 
sought  out  before  all  things  the  humble  dwelling  of  this 
saintly  man,  that  they  might  be  brought  in  contact  with 
something  of  the  inward  movements  that  are  silently  mould- 
ing the  life  of  the  community. 

"  He  retained  throughout  his  new  life  all  his  breadth  of 
culture,  and  no  circumstance  or  surroundings,  however 
humble,  could  dwarf  the  moral  and  spiritual  dignity  of  the 
man  ;  on  the  contrary,  they  only  served  to  render  it  more 


THE   CHRISTIAN   MYSTIC  183 

conspicuous.  In  his  most  humble  dwelling,  he  could  en- 
tertain the  humblest  and  make  him  feel  welcome ;  but  in 
the  same  dwelling  the  highest  had  no  consciousness  of  the 
exceptional  surroundings  and  no  feeling  of  condescension 
in  the  presence  of  one  who  received  them  with  true  gentle- 
manly courtesy  and  dignity.  The  same  breadth  of  nature 
was  conspicuous  in  his  relations  with  men  and  with 
churches.     .     .     . 

"Mr.  Bowen's  whole  life  was  a  testimony  to  the  disin- 
terestedness of  his  aims ;  but  special  instances  of  it  were  of 
frequent  occurrence.     .     .     . 

"  The  life  of  such  a  man  could  not  fail  to  make  a  deep 
impression  on  all  earnest  minds  in  this  community.  We 
have  no  doubt  that  many  of  our  native  fellow  citizens  have 
felt  its  influence,  and  some  of  them  have  not  been  slow  to 
acknowledge  it.  We  know  of  many  amongst  our  own  fel- 
low men  who  owe  all  that  is  best  in  their  lives  to  their  con- 
tact with  him  and  of  others  who  were  made  better  through 
their  reverence  for  his  character.     .     .     . 

"Reality  and  self- forgetting  sympathy  were  the  most 
marked  features  of  his  character,  and  these  are  the  qualities 
which  most  inspire  confidence  and  affection.  His  was  a 
nature  incapable  of  affectation  and  free  of  all  self-conscious- 
ness.    .     .     . 

"  Through  forty  years,  that  life  has  been  amongst  us, 
from  its  very  character  mingling  little  with  the  busy  cur- 
rents of  public  movement  that  have  been  flowing  onwards, 
guided  by  other  aims  and  other  plans  ;  and  yet  we  cannot 
but  feel  poorer  that  a  life  so  rich  in  noble  purpose  and 
lofty  aim  has  passed  away  from  among  us.  Gladly  and 
ungrudgingly,  therefore,  do  we  offer  this  tribute  of  honour 
to  the  memory  of  one  who  neither  loved  nor  sought  it 
while  he  lived." 


1 84  GEORGE  BOWEN 

George  Bowen's  method  of  life  and  work  was  not  an 
absolute  method.  There  is  nothing  in  the  Scriptures 
which  makes  it  prescriptive  and  while  the  spirit  of 
his  life  is  the  right  spiiit  for  all  workers  for  Christ 
and  for  men,  experience  did  not  demonstrate  that  his 
methods  were  the  only  methods  or  the  most  effective 
methods.  They  were  probably  much  more  effective 
than  Bowen  himself  believed.  He  referred  with  some 
despondency  at  times  to  the  apparent  fruitlessness  of 
his  work,  but  at  his  funeral,  Mr.  Hume,  speaking  of 
the  great  indirect  influence  he  wielded  over  the  natives 
of  Bombay,  mentioned  * '  cases  which  had  come  under 
his  own  observation  of  heathen  who  had  been  brought 
to  Christ  through  the  holy  life  of  him  who  for  forty 
years  had  been  before  the  people  as  a  living  example 
of  the  saving,  keeping,  sanctifying  power  of  Christ  as 
no  other  man  had  been. ' ' 

Those  who  deny  the  absoluteness  of  Bowen's 
method  are  in  a  position  of  real  peril,  however.  "We 
may  easily  turn  back  from  such  self-sacrifice  into  a 
spiritual  easiness  and  self-indulgence  which  are  fatal 
to  the  highest  power.  It  may  be  feared  sometimes  that 
over-reaction  from  the  ascetic  ideals  of  earlier  days  will 
carry  us  too  far.  Those  who  say,  "We will  not  fast 
with  the  outward  fast, ' '  easily  forget  that  fast  of  the 
heart  which  is  the  gate  of  God.  Those  who  would  *  *  use 
this  would  without  abusing  it"  find  that  road,  though 
the  right  road,  very  slippery.  After  all,  it  is  better 
to  err  on  the  side  of  robust  sacrifice,  of  completeness 
of  self-denial,  and  to  give  up  all  literally,  rather  than 
under  the  plea  of  moderation  to  cover  over  a  love  of 
the  world,  or  of  pleasure,  or  of  ease  which  is  the  death 
of  holiness  and  of  the  might  of  God  in  a  man. 


THE   CHRISTIAN   MYSTIC  185 

Bowen  was  no  narrow-minded  ascetic  recluse.  "  It 
is  too  common  in  these  days,"  says  Dr.  Mackichan  of 
the  United  Free  Church  of  Scotland,  in  his  preface  to  a 
little  sketch  of  Mr.  Bowen,  ' '  to  look  upon  every  form  of 
high  devotedness  as  the  offspring  of  a  certain  one- 
sidedness,  verging  on  fanaticism,  the  result  of  excess 
or  defect  in  some  emotion  or  faculty  in  minds  other- 
wise rational  and  well  furnished.  We  have  little 
doubt  that  the  popular  conception  of  George  Bowen' s 
life  amongst  those  who  had  but  slight  contact  with  it 
was  not  very  different  from  this.  The  study  of  this 
sketch  of  the  life  which  it  unfolds  will  show  how  far 
such  conceptions  fall  short  of  the  realities  of  the 
Christian  life.  It  exhibits  the  development  of  a  mind 
singularly  free  from  the  enthusiasm  of  mere  emotion, 
broad  enough  to  be  able  to  assimilate  the  best  ele- 
ments of  the  culture  of  other  times  and  other  lands, 
and  strong  enough  to  retain  its  own  originality  in  the 
midst  of  all  the  influences  which  crowded  in  upon  it." 
Bowen  was  a  man  of  rarest  intellectual  and  moral 
strength  of  character,  large  natured,  easy,  conscious 
of  balance  and  poise,  yet  so  humble  and  modest  that 
thcvse  qualities  were  continually  hidden  so  far  as  their 
possessor  could  hide  them  from  conspicuous  gaze. 
*'We  had  Bowen  dining  with  us  last  night,"  says  a 
Bombay  English  civilian,^  "  and  I  only  wish  some  re- 
porter had  been  behind  the  scene  to  take  a  note  of 
the  'droppings.'  .  ,  .  Oh,  I  wish  you  had  been 
with  us.  You  would  have  been  elevated  when  listen- 
ing to  Bowen  discoursing  on  these  wondrous  themes. 
A  meek,  lowly,  despised  man,  but  oh,  how  happy  ! 
living  in  that  miserable  hut  in  the  bazaar,  holding 
1  "Memorials  ofKobert  Brown,  Esq.,"  p.  268f. 


1 86  GEORGE  BOWEN 

converse  with  his  God.  Hunter  is  greatly  enamoured 
of  him,  the  more  so  because  he  is  very  musical.  Last 
night,  before  going  away,  he  played  an  accompani- 
ment on  the  piano  to  Hunter's  violincello — 'Weep 
not  for  sorrow.'  You  need  not  be  surprised  if  you 
hear  of  both  of  us  taking  up  our  quarters  with  Bowen 
in  the  bazaar  at  ten  rupees  a  month."  ^  And  one  who 
knew  Bowen  long  and  intimately  in  Bombay  is  quoted 
by  Dr.  Hanna  in  his  biographical  preface  to  the 
Scotch  edition  of  "  Daily  Meditations  "  as  writing  : 

"  If  expressions  of  the  deepest  reverence,  admiration  and 
affection  were  all  that  is  required,  I  should  not  be  found 
wanting ;  for,  taking  him  all  in  all,  I  have  always  thought 
him  the  most  delightful  and  remarkable  Christian  man  I 
ever  met.  He  was  at  one  time  an  infidel.  Afterwards  he 
gave  up  friends,  country,  fortune  (his  father  was  a  rich 
man),  and  consecrated  himself  and  his  whole  life  to  the  serv- 
ice of  Christ  among  the  heathen.  You  know  how  he  has 
laboured  for  so  many  years,  night  and  day,  in  Bombay ; 
how  he  preaches  every  day  to  the  native  population ;  and 
you  also  can  tell  how  great  has  been  his  influence  for  good 
on  the  Europeans  there.  For  many  years,  he  actually 
lived  in  the  native  bazaar,  and  among  that  sadly  degraded 
population,  until  asked  to  become  secretary  to  the  Relig- 
ious Tract  Society,  at  whose  depot  he  now  resides,  manag- 
ing the  affairs  without  fee  or  reward,  in  addition  to  his 
other  labours.  Probably  it  has  added  to  his  weight  in  the 
consideration  of  the  English  section  of  the  community,  that 
he  is  a  most  accomplished  and  highly  intellectual  man, 
having  travelled  much  in  Europe  at  one  time ;  knowing 

^Quoted  in  Dr.  Hanna's  preface  to  "Daily  Meditations," 
Edinburgh,  1891^, 


THE   CHRISTIAN   MYSTIC  187 

French,  German,  Spanish,  Italian  and  I  don't  know  how 
many  other  European  languages,  in  addition  to  Hindu- 
stani and  Marathi.  Many  years  ago  he  used  to  try  and 
enlighten  my  dear  brother  in  the  mysteries  of  astronomy ; 
and  his  musical  powers  are  quite  remarkable.  It  is  seldom 
any  one  has  an  opportunity  of  testing  them ;  but  on  meet- 
ing him  one  evening  quietly,  after  hearing  him  play  a  long 
and  difficult  piece  of  music,  I  asked  him  for  a  repetition  of 
part,  when  I  was  surprised  to  find  that  the  whole  had  been  im- 
promptu improvised  as  he  went  along.  Perhaps  one  should 
add  that  in  spite  of  Mr.  Bowen's  abundant  labours,  little 
visible  fruit  has  been  the  result.  His  standard  is  scrupu- 
lously high  and  rigid.  Other  missionaries  have  frequently 
baptized  natives  instructed  and  impressed  by  his  teaching. 
I  asked  him  once  if  he  did  not  feel  discouraged.  *  Thank 
God,'  he  said,  *I  can  truly  say  I  have  never  experienced 
such  a  feeling.  This  thought,  "In  Thy  favour  is  life," 
swallows  up  all  others.  It  is  enough  for  me.'  I  believe 
eternity  alone  will  reveal  the  amount  of  his  unconscious  in- 
fluence and  reveal  the  bearing  his  noble  self-sacrificing  life 
has  had  on  the  hearts  of  others." 

A  good  deal  of  this  wider  range  of  life  in  his  mis- 
sionary days  was  doubtless  due  to  the  manner  of  his 
life  in  his  youth.  God  would  surely  prefer  to  get  His 
men  unmarred,  but  if  they  come  marred,  He  takes  all 
that  was  innocent  in  their  past  and  tui'ns  it  to  power. 
It  was  so  with  Eaymoud  Lull  and  it  was  so  with  George 
Bowen.  He  kept  much  from  those  early  days  and  he 
let  much  go.  Mr.  Eankiu  sent  him  a  copy  of  a  romance 
which  Bowen  had  written  as  a  young  man,  entitled, 
*'  The  Pupil  of  Eaphael  "  and  which  he  had  published 
through  Putnam.     ''  I  am  reading  it,"  Bowen  wrote, 


1 88  GEORGE   BOWEN 

"  but  have  no  desire  that  anybody  else  should  read  it. 
Not  a  single  incident  or  a  single  character  remained 
in  memory.  There  are  portions  of  it  that  I  regret  ex- 
ceedingly, showing  the  effects  of  Balzac's  writings. 
I  am  glad  that  the  Lord  so  completely  snuffed  the 
book  out.  Above  all,  I  am  grateful  that  He  has  saved 
me  from  myself." 

An  outstanding  characteristic  of  Bowen  was  his 
reality.  The  Times  editorial  emphasized  this.  All 
who  knew  Bowen  felt  it.  Dr.  Mackichan  refers  to  it : 
''  George  Bowen' s  conversion  from  unbelief  to  faith 
was  a  spiritual  movement  to  which  every  part  of  his 
nature  gave  consent,  and  the  life  which  followed  was 
the  harmonious  expression  of  his  whole  being  thus 
raised  to  a  higher  plane  by  the  revelation  of  God  in 
Christ.  That  reality  which  is  referred  to  in  this 
sketch  as  the  leading  characteristic  of  all  his  religious 
life,  was  the  result  of  this  transformation.  All  he 
did  in  the  service  of  the  Saviour  "Who  had  revealed 
Himself  to  him  was  done  with  the  calmness,  the 
resolution,  the  rationalness  of  one  who  found  in  the 
atmosphere  of  a  consecrated  Christian  life  his  soul's 
true  element.  .  .  .  And  this  reality  was  the  se- 
cret of  the  joy  and  beauty  of  his  self-sacrifice.  There 
is  a  kind  of  self-denial  which  is  ever  conscious  of 
itself.  But  his  was  true  and  beautiful  in  proportion 
as  it  was  free  from  this  selfish  taint." 

No  faintest  shadow  of  uncandour,  of  hypocrisy, 
of  professionalism,  darkened  George  Bowen' s  life. 
He  was  what  he  appeared.  He  appeared  what  he 
was.  And  he  tried  to  be  and  to  appear  what  he 
ought.  A  bad  man  may  claim  to  possess  the  virtue 
of  reality  because  he  is  really  bad.     But  Bowen  be- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  MYSTIC  189 

lieved  that  the  only  reality  of  life  is  the  right  adjust- 
ment of  itself  to  God  and  goodness  and  he  strove 
thereto.  And  men  were  influenced  by  him  through 
his  reality.  The  missionary  finds  sincere  men  among 
Mohammedans,  Hindus  and  Buddhists,  not  men  who 
are  living  up  to  all  the  light  they  have,  but  men  who 
honestly  believe  what  they  profess  and  in  human 
measure  live  by  it.  The  same  thing  in  the  missionary 
will  not  convince  them  that  he  is  right  and  themselves 
wrong.  His  type  of  reality  must  be  larger  and  fuller. 
He  must  be  sincere  and  honest  and  true  but  the  truth 
which  he  represents  must  be  the  complete  truth,  the 
divine  element,  and  his  reality  must  mean  the  ad- 
justment and  coordination  of  his  life  to  that. 

Bowen's  spiritual  fervour  and  devotion  did  not  blind 
the  accuracy  of  his  intellectual  judgments.  There  is 
a  pious  goodness,  which  desiring  to  speak  evil  of  no 
man,  is  derelict  in  its  testimony  to  the  truth  and 
defective  in  its  defense  of  righteousness.  Bowen  was 
the  soul  of  charity  but  he  was  the  servant  of  the 
truth  and  he  did  not  sacrifice  truth  to  amiability. 
"I  am  convinced,"  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Eankin,  "that 
Ch under  Sen  was  more  intent  on  his  own  glory, 
throughout,  than  on  that  of  Christ.  He  honoured 
the  Christ  of  his  own  conception,  the  Christ  that 
was  plastic  in  his  hands,  to  be  moulded  as  the  Hindu 
national  pride  demanded.  There  was  no  uncondi- 
tional surrender  to  Christ  at  any  time.  The  Christ 
that  he  favoured  was  one  that  would  give  greatness  to 
Chunder  Sen."  This  was  Bowen's  spirit  in  the 
study  of  comparative  religion.  He  was  not  deceived. 
He  saw  the  truth  clearly,  unobscured  by  the  immoral 
tolerance  of  a  false  liberalism,  and  the  truth  he  saw 


I90  GEORGE  BOWEN 

he  spoke.  Because  he  was  good,  he  was  uot  **  gul- 
lible," to  use  Vivakanda's  adjective  in  expressing 
his  judgment  of  the  American  people.  All  religious 
expressions  were  not  the  same  to  Bo  wen.  Some  of 
them  rested  as  he  had  told  his  pundit  at  the  begin- 
ning on  a  foundation  of  untruth.  There  are  false 
religious  elements  as  there  are  true  and  they  are  not 
to  be  mixed  indiscriminately. 

As  with  all  great  religious  leaders,  so  with  George 
Bowen,  his  doctrine  grew  out  of  his  experience.  I 
have  spoken  of  this  in  Lull.  It  was  equally  notice- 
able in  Bowen.  ''  You  will  have  seen,"  he  writes  to 
Mr.  Eankin,  **  that  I  wrote  something  about  the 
Trinity.  The  Bible  does  not  undertake  to  explain  it 
to  us.  "What  it  most  positively  teaches  us  is  the 
Trinity  of  God,  and  what  is  said  about  the  manifesta- 
tion of  God  in  Christ  is  never  treated  as  though  it 
conflicted  with  that  in  any  way.  We  get  at  the 
right  conception  of  these  things  not  so  much  by 
intellectual  effort,  as  experimentally.  As  we  grow 
up  into  Christ,  we  apprehend  Christ.  There  should 
never  be  a  shadow  of  a  doubt  in  the  mind  (there 
never  has  been  in  mine)  that  in  honouring  Christ  we 
honour  the  Father."  On  the  same  subject,  he  writes 
later,  * '  I  have  no  trouble  or  confusion  as  that  you 
speak  of  in  regard  to  the  persons  of  the  Godhead.  I 
conceive  of  God  as  absolutely  one,  yet  have  no  diffi- 
culty in  apprehending  God  in  Christ  and  God  the 
Spirit  in  me.  Without  this  trifold  manifestation  I 
have  never  known  God,  There  is  more  approach  to 
a  mystery  in  the  distinguishing  between  the  Christ 
of  God  and  His  brethren  fully  redeemed,  in  whom 
too  is  all  the  fullness  of  the  Godhead.    John  fell  at 


THE  CHRISTIAN  MYSTIC  I9I 

the  feet  of  one  of  these.  But  I  suppose  there  Trill 
be  practically  no  difficulty.  He  is  always  the 
Saviour  and  they  are  always  the  saved.  John  xvii. 
and  Ephesians  iii.,  etc.,  show  that  we  must  get  where 
Christ  was  when  about  to  ascend.  The  more  fully 
we  are  conformed  to  Him,  the  better  we  shall  under- 
stand all  things."  Bushnell  solved  the  mystery  of 
the  Trinity  in  the  same  way  and  in  the  end  we  shall 
find  that  what  theology  is  unlivable  will  be  difficult 
of  permanent  propagation  in  mission  fields.  Eelig- 
ious  value  is  not  the  right  criterion  of  truth,  but  the 
truth  whose  religious  value  is  not  known  and  evi- 
denced in  our  own  life  we  shall  find  it  hard  to  com- 
municate to  others. 

His  deep  Christian  experience,  his  attempt  to 
make  his  Christian  life  real  and  his  shrewd  knowl- 
edge of  the  heart,  led  Bowen  to  anticipate  by  many 
years  that  form  of  Christian  teaching  identified  now 
largely  with  the  Keswick  convention  for  the  deepen- 
ing of  the  spiritual  life  held  annually  in  the  English 
lake-country.  Whatever  excrescences  there  may  be, 
the  main  teaching  of  the  Keswick  conference  is 
simply  the  Gospel  of  the.redeemed  life  in  Christ.  As 
Bowen  put  it  in  his  "Daily  Meditations"  (for  De- 
cember 30th),  ''You  believe  in  Christ  and  not  in 
yourself ;  in  His  goodness,  not  in  yours  ;  in  His 
power  and  wisdom,  not  your  own  ;  in  His  word,  not 
in  yours  ;  in  His  work,  not  in  yours  ;  in  His  suffer- 
ings, not  in  yours ;  in  His  prayers,  not  in  yours. 
When  a  man  believes  his  vessel  to  be  on  the  point  of 
going  to  pieces,  and  is  hailed  by  another  that  is  sea- 
worthy, you  will  quickly  find  him  removing  all  his 
goods  from  the  first  to  the  other  one.     His  faith  finds 


192  GEORGE  BOWEN 

unequivocal  utterance  in  his  conduct.  And  he  that 
believes  in  Jesus  Christ  makes  haste  to  get  every- 
thing that  he  values  transferred  to  Him."  And  he 
writes  in  1880  in  a  personal  letter  :  ''The  best  use 
we  can  make  of  our  past  sins  is  to  turn  from  them  to 
Christ.  Anything  that  diverts  our  attention  from 
Christ  does  us  harm.  This  and  that  sin  may  appear 
very  odious  to  us,  and  are  so  truly,  but  with  God 
the  most  odious  sin  is  that  of  not  accepting  His  offer 
of  love.  .  .  .  There  is  not  the  slightest  use  in 
trying  to  correct  anything  amiss  in  our  mental  habits 
by  direct  efforts.  We  get  the  victory  by  faith,  i.  e. , 
by  ceasing  to  combat  them  and  making  them  over  to 
Christ.  Do  not  even  be  impatient  with  these  evils. 
Nothing  so  discomfits  Satan  as  when  you  praise  the 
Lord  (2  Chron.  xx.  20)."  It  is  an  intensely  interest- 
ing thing  to  see  in  church  history  how  the  teaching 
of  Christian  men  regarding  the  higher  spiritual  life 
repeats  itself  from  age  to  age  and  how  the  heresies  of 
the  earlier  days  arise  recurrently,  and  especially  in 
both  matters  in  connection  with  missions. 

The  wisest  and  most  practical  attempts  of  to  day  to 
feed  the  hungry  human  soul,  Bowen  anticipated.  It 
is  to  be  feared  that  sometimes  the  technical  theolog- 
ical schools  little  realize  how  deep  the  hunger  is  or 
for  what  it  longs.  The  summer  conferences  which 
testify  to  its  existence  and  attempt  to  allay  it  are  too 
often  left  beyond  the  sympathy  and  interest  of  the 
school.  But  we  may  be  sure  that  these  conferences 
exist  because  of  a  need  and  to  some  measure  succeed 
in  meeting  it.  It  is  not  so  much  clear  theological 
doctrine  that  these  hearts  crave  as  the  sense  of  assur- 
ance, the  secret  of  peace,  the  way  of  a  larger  life, 


THE  CHRISTIAN  MYSTIC  193 

somethiDg  more  than  the  conventional  teaching  gives, 
or  the  conventional  standard  requires.  What  Boweu 
said  is  just  what  those  who  attempt  to  meet  these 
higher  spiritual  demands  are  saying  to-day.  "  I  live 
in  hope,"  he  writes  to  a  correspondent,  ''that  you 
will  send  me  word  some  day  that  you  are  believing 
these  words  of  God  to  '  whomsoever '  and  banish  that 
sense  of  condemnation  and  all  vain  thirsting.  What- 
ever your  nature  really  demands  for  its  highest 
development  is  in  that  word  '  eternal  life.'  I  wish 
that  you  could  make  up  your  mind  that  nothing 
more  is  ever  to  come  to  you  from  God  than  has  come 
to  you,  and  give  your  attention  to  what  has  come  to 
you  and  is  ignored  by  you.  It  was  a  blessed  hour  for 
me  when  I  lost  faith  in  the  future  and  began  to 
interrogate  the  present.  I  think  I  see  a  prisoner  in  a 
cell.  On  a  table  a  letter  has  been  lying  many  days 
which  he  fancies  for  somebody  else  and  not  for  him. 
It  authorizes  him  to  claim  the  right  of  egress  and  to 
go  out  of  his  jail  and  to  go  to  a  comfortable  dwelling 
provided  for  him.  But,  he  says,  it  is  not  for  me  ;  if 
it  were  for  me,  it  would  not  leave  me  here.  He  is 
there  because  he  has  not  the  faith.  Why  should  you 
make  light  of  all  that  God  has  done  to  inspire  you 
with  faith  ?  You  do  this  when  you  fail  to  recognize 
what  God  offers  you.  The  lying  spirit  of  unbelief 
will  say  to  you,  this  does  not  suit  your  case.  Let  not 
that  spirit  continue  in  his  post  of  doorkeeper  of  your 
heart.  How  glad  I  should  be  to  hear  that  you  have 
decided  to  let  God  be  true,  though  every  man  a  liar. 
All  happiness  is  in  the  recognition  of  Him  Who  sits 
upon  the  throne,  whose  nature  and  whose  name  is 
Love,  Who   gives   Himself  and  is  Himself  Love 


194  GEORGE  BOWEN 

Almighty  to  every  atom,  and  is  excluded  only  by 
man's  unbelieving  heart.  God  has  never  done  any- 
thing for  me,  or  will  do,  that  He  is  not  offering  to 
every  creature,  for  He  offers  Himself  and  He  is  Love. 
You  have  only  to  let  God  be  true,  let  Him  be  Him- 
self, and  you  will  find  yourself  in  Paradise.  The 
New  Jerusalem  comes  down  from  God  out  of  heaven 
when  men  discover  this.  But  it  is  hid  from  them  by 
the  great  concern  that  they  have  for  self.  Do  not 
allow  your  heart  to  cheat  you  out  of  the  blessings 
contained  in  this  truth.     .     .     ." 

Again  he  writes,  *'I  deeply  feel  that  what  you 
want  is  not  that  God  should  take  up  some  new  atti- 
tude towards  you  or  do  anything,  or  be  anything  but 
what  He  is,  but  that  you  should  recognize  Him  as 
revealed  at  the  Cross.  What  makes  heaven  to  be 
heaven  is  that  the  truth  which  you  fail  to  see  is  there 
seen  by  all."  Bo  wen  counselled  thus  out  of  his  own 
experience.  ' '  As  you  would  wish  your  own  word  to 
be  honoured,"  he  wrote  (August  11,  1885),  "honour 
God's.  Salvation  is  in  that  very  thing.  I  was  just 
on  the  border  of  despair  in  1845,  till  on  the  4th  of 
December  I  saw  that  all  I  had  been  seeking  in  my- 
self, I  had  in  Christ.  I  had  been  tormenting  myself 
by  looking  hourly  to  my  own  heart  for  the  dawn  of 
a  brighter  day,  looking  (if  you  please)  for  Christ  in 
my  heart  rather  than  for  Christ  in  the  Word,  and  I 
found  life,  joy  and  peace  when  I  let  go  my  own  heart 
and  looked  for  Christ  alone,  as  the  Israelites  looked 
to  the  brazen  serpent."  The  path  he  urged  upon 
others  he  had  trod  himself  and  he  knew  whither  it 
led. 

One  supreme  test  George  Bowen  met.     Little  chil- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  MYSTIC  1 95 

dren  loved  him  and  felt  that  in  him  they  had  a  friend 
without  dissimulation  or  suggestion  of  distrust.  Can 
a  man  ask  more  than  that?  When  he  died,  says 
Prescott  of  the  great  William,  in  ' '  The  Else  of  the 
Dutch  Eepublic,"  a  whole  great  nation  mourned  for 
him  and  the  little  children  cried  upon  the  streets. 

I  suppose  to  some  of  you  this  sketch  has  intro- 
duced an  altogether  new  character.  Men  fall  fast 
out  of  memory  and  George  Bowen  would  not  have 
lifted  a  finger  to  prolong  his  fame.  But  he  is  a 
man  whom  we  cannot  afford  to  forget.  In  reviving 
his  story,  I  am  conscious  of  the  danger  to  which 
Dr.  Mackichan  referred  just  after  his  death:  ''To 
those  of  us  who  were  intimately  associated  with  the 
departed  missionary  leader,  the  sense  of  loss  has  day 
by  day  grown  deeper.  Christian  work  with  which 
he  was  associated  and  Christian  assemblies  which  he 
was  wont  to  frequent,  have  seemed  almost  less  Chris- 
tian by  reason  of  the  absence  of  one  who  gave  the 
high  tone  of  his  own  spirit  to  everything  with  which 
he  was  identified.  As  we  contemplate  the  end  of  his 
conversation  we  are  not  strangers  to  the  danger  of 
resting  satisfied  with  a  vicarious  devotion.  It  was 
inspiring  and  strengthening  to  know  that  one  lived 
and  worked  so  nobly  in  the  midst  of  us.  But  to 
admire  and  describe  this  life  is  the  least  part  of  that 
which  it  requires  of  us.  In  every  department  of 
Christian  service  the  same  spirit  of  reality  and  con- 
secration is  needed,  and  if  this  brief  record  of  his  life 
shall  in  any  measure  help  to  keep  alive  the  memory 
of  this  man  of  God,  and  lead  those  who  have  a  part 
in  the  same  work  to  become  partakers  of  his  higher 
faith,  it  will  be  contributing  to  the  accomplishment 


196  GEORGE  BOWEN 

of  no  unimportant  part  of  the  work  for  which  George 
Bo  wen  lived  and  laboured  and  died." 

It  is  easy  for  us  to  be  content  with  looking  at  such 
sacrifice  and  total  devotion  in  a  missionary  of  a  past 
generation.  But  there  was  no  standard  of  duty  or 
ideal  of  character  before  George  Bo  wen  that  is  not 
before  us.  If  he  utterly  denied  himself  and  wholly 
sought  to  live  unto  God  in  all  things,  it  was  in  re- 
sponse to  no  call  that  does  not  also  sound  in  our 
hearts  and  summon  us  to  the  same  task  of  the  world's 
evangelization  and  to  the  same  life  of  Christlike 
candour  and  reality.  In  the  quiet  of  this  hour  can 
we  not  hear  this  Voice  saying  to  us,  ' '  And  you,  why 
do  you  too  not  follow  Me  as  he  followed  whom  men 
called  '  The  Lamb  of  India '  ?  " 


LECTURE  V 

JOHN  LAWRENCE,  THE  CHRISTIAN 
STATESMAN  AND  THE  PROBLEM 
OF    RELIGION    AND    POLITICS 


LECTURE  V 

JOHN  LAWRENCE,  THE  CHRISTIAN 

STATESMAN  AND  THE  PROBLEM 

OF  RELIGION  AND  POLITICS 

t    ■    AHE  Hon.  John  W.  Foster  has  remarked  with 
reference  to  the  failure  of  the  American 


1 


Senate  to  confirm  President  Grant's  nomi- 
nation of  Caleb  Gushing  to  be  chief  justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court,  that  it  was  not  the  only  time  the 
American  people  have  pronounced  defect  in  moral 
character  a  bar  to  the  highest  honours.  And  the 
world  has  never  been  content  to  ask  mere  moral 
rectitude  in  its  greatest  heroes.  Many  other  men  of 
their  generations  were  as  honest  and  pure  as  Chinese 
Gordon  and  John  Lawrence,  but  these  men  smote  the 
imagination  of  the  world  with  a  peculiar  power  and 
won  its  love  and  regard,  and  the  unique  and  distinct- 
ive thing  about  them  was  their  religious  character. 
The  remarkable  thing  is  that  men  should  so  admire 
and  revere  the  highest  religious  character  in  their 
heroes  and  so  neglect  its  development  in  themselves. 
One  is  tempted  to  ask  whether  men  have  a  right  to 
praise  in  Gordon  and  Lawrence  a  religious  principle 
and  life  which  are  as  open  to  every  man  as  they  were 
to  them,  unless  they  are  conscientiously  following  after 
these  things  for  themselves. 

There  were  wide  differences  between  John  Law- 
rence and  Chinese  Gordon,  as  will  appear,  but  in  this 

199 


200  JOHN  LAWRENCE 

one  thing  they  were  alike.  They  had  one  passion. 
It  was  to  do  their  duty  in  the  fear  of  God,  and  in  no 
other  fear,  and  in  the  simplicity  and  faith  of  Chris- 
tian men.  On  the  gravestone  of  John's  brother 
Henry  at  Lucknow  are  the  simple  words  prescribed 
by  Lawrence  himself,  "Here  lies  Henry  Lawrence, 
who  tried  to  do  his  duty."  The  last  words  Chinese 
Gordon  wrote  to  his  sister  were  the  postcript  to  his 
letter  of  December  14,  1884,  ''I  am  quite  happy, 
thank  God,  and  with  Lawrence  have  tried  to  do  my 
duty."  "I  never  cared  for  honours,"  said  John 
Lawrence,  as  he  drew  near  the  close  of  his  term  of 
office  as  Viceroy  of  India  ;  ' '  I  do  not  regret  the  resig- 
nation of  all  the  state,  pomp,  power,  or  patronage 
which  appertain  to  the  office.  It  was  a  proud  mo- 
ment to  me  when  I  walked  up  the  steps  of  this  house, 
feeling  as  I  then  did  that,  without  political  interest 
or  influence,  I  had  been  chosen  to  fill  the  highest 
office  under  the  crown,  the  Viceroy  of  the  Queen. 
But  it  will  be  a  happier  moment  to  me  when  I  walk 
down  the  steps  with  the  feeling  that  I  have  tried  to 
do  my  duty."  It  was  every  man's  judgment  about 
him  that  he  had  in  sincerity  and  honour  done  his 
duty  his  whole  life  through.  When  Sir  Charles 
"Wood  resigned  the  Secretaryship  of  State  for  India 
to  become  Lord  Halifax,  he  wrote  to  Lawrence,  "It 
was  a  great  satisfaction  dealing  with  so  honest  and 
straightforward  a  person  as  you  are."  "After  ten 
years'  witness  of  his  private  life,"  said  Miss  Gaster, 
his  private  secretary  during  the  last  years  of  his  life, 
"I  believe  from  the  depth  of  my  heart  that  God 
never  made  a  purer,  nobler  nature  than  his.  Faults, 
of  course,  he  had.     But  to  those  who  knew  him  well 


THE  CHRISTIAN  STATESMAN  20I 

they  -were  only  spots  in  the  sun  of  his  goodness,  inap- 
preciable in  the  warmth  and  life  he  diffused  around." 
And  Lord  Derby  summarized  the  spirit  of  the  man 
in  his  words  at  the  ''Lawrence  Memorial"  meeting 
at  the  Mansion  House,  ' '  Without  claiming  any  special 
intimacy  with  Lord  Lawrence,  I  may  say,  as  the 
world  goes,  that  I  knew  him  well,  and  the  impression 
that  his  character  always  left  on  my  mind  I  can  only 
describe  as  that  of  a  certain  heroic  simplicity.^ ^  And 
Mr.  Bosworth  Smith  begins  his  biography  with  a 
recognition  of  the  man's  rough  humour  and  giant 
vigour,  but  relates  it  as  it  was  related  in  his  life  to 
his  fearless  veracity  and  honour.  "John  Lawrence," 
says  Mr.  Smith,  ''was  nothing,  if  he  was  not  truth- 
ful ;  he  was  transparent  as  the  day,  and  my  highest 
aim  has  been  to  render  to  so  'heroically  simple'  a 
character  that  homage  which  is  its  due — the  homage 
of  unalloyed  truth.  .  .  .  He  always  said  .  .  . 
exactly  what  he  thought.  He  always  acted  .  .  . 
exactly  as  he  spoke.  He  raised  against  himself,  as 
every  strong  ruler,  as  every  vigorous  reformer,  as 
every  great  man  must  inevitably  do,  not  a  few  ene- 
mies ;  he  attached  to  himself  by  the  selfsame  proc- 
esses, and  for  the  selfsame  reasons,  troops  of  most 
devoted  and  most  loyal  friends.  .  .  .  The  rugged 
lineaments  and  the  deep  furrows  of  his  grand  counte- 
nance — 

For  his  face 
Deep  scars  of  thunder  had  entrenched,  and  care 
Sat  on  his  faded  cheek,  but  under  brows 
Of  dauntless  courage  — 

were  a  picture,  which  he  who  runs  may  read,  of  the 
grand  and  rugged  character  which  lay  beneath  It." 


202  JOHN   LAWRENCE 

John  Laird  Mair  Lawrence  -vras  born  of  a  North 
Ireland  family  in  Eichmoud  in  Yorkshire  on  March  4, 
1811.  His  father  was  a  soldier  who  cherished  a  sense 
of  unjust  treatment,  and  his  mother  was  a  daughter 
of  a  Donegal  clergyman  named  Knox,  descended 
from  the  great  reformer.  The  calm  religious  con- 
viction of  his  ancestry  ran  in  the  boy  John.  "I 
should  say,"  he  wrote  years  later,  "that  on  the 
whole  we  derived  most  of  our  mettle  from  our  father. 
Both  my  father  and  mother  possessed  much  char- 
acter. She  had  great  administrative  qualities.  She 
kept  the  family  together,  and  brought  us  all  up  on 
very  slender  means.  She  kept  the  purse,  and  managed 
all  domestic  affairs.  .  .  .  When  I  was  coming 
out  to  India,  my  poor  old  mother  made  me  a  speech 
somewhat  to  the  following  effect : — '  I  know  you 
don't  like  advice,  so  I  will  not  give  you  much.  But 
pray  recollect  two  things.  Don't  marry  a  woman 
who  had  not  a  good  mother,  and  don't  be  too  ready 
to  speak  your  mind.  It  was  the  rock  on  which  your 
father  shipwrecked  his  prospects.'  "  John  Lawrence 
married  later  the  kind  of  wife  that  suited  his  mother, 
but  he  never  lacked  in  readiness  to  speak  his  mind, 
and  on  that  rock  of  unswerving  courage  of  conviction 
and  the  expression  of  conviction  he  won  his  name. 

John  and  his  older  brother  Henry  were  school- 
mates as  boys,  as  they  were  workfellows  as  men,  and 
they  got  the  characteristic  schooling  of  the  day.  "  I 
was  flogged  every  day  of  my  life  at  school  except 
one,"  said  John,  "and  then  I  was  flogged  twice." 
"For  my  part,"  said  Henry  Lawrence,  "my  educa- 
tion consisted  in  kicks;  I  was  never  taught  any- 
thing."    John  was  no  great  student,  and  his  life  was 


'THE  CHRISTIAN  STATESMAN  203 

an  ordinary  boy's  life,  with  an  unusual  amount  of 
daring  and  courage,  perhaps,  but  nothiDg  more.  He 
wanted  to  be  a  soldier  and  go  out  to  fight  in  India 
as  his  father  had  done  but  he  was  obliged  instead  to 
go  to  the  East  India  Company's  college,  for  the 
training  of  its  civilian  agents,  and  then  went  out  to 
India  as  a  civilian  in  September,  1829,  with  Henry. 
It  was  already  foretold  of  Henry  that  he  would  come 
back  Sir  Henry  Lawrence,  but  no  one  expected  great 
things  of  John.  J.  H.  Batten  tells  of  a  visit  in  1859, 
the  year  of  the  Mutiny,  to  Mr.  Le  Bas,  who  had  been 
principal  of  Haileybury  College  and  Le  Bas  asked 
him,  says  Mr.  Batten,  *'  *  Who  is  this  John  Lawrence 
of  whom  I  hear  so  much  ? '  to  which  I  replied,  '  Don't 
you  remember  a  tall  thin  Irishman  with  whom  I 
much  consorted,  who  once  kept  an  Irish  revel  of 
bonfires  on  the  grass  plot  opposite  to  Letter  C  ;  and 
whom  you  forgave  on  account  of  his  Orange  zeal  and 
his  fun  7 '  '  Aha  ! '  said  the  old  dean,  '  I  remember 
the  man ;  not  a  bad  sort  of  fellow  ; '  and  then  he 
burst  into  one  of  his  fits  of  laughter,  ending  with  the 
dry  remark,  *  but  what  has  become  of  all  our  good 
students?'"  He  had  got,  however,  some  training 
in  character,  and  he  had  won  some  friends  among  his 
fellows  who  were  later  in  the  terrible  days  of  the 
Mutiny  to  stand  solidly  about  him  when  he  was  to 
be  the  great  rock  in  the  midst  of  the  tempest,  upon 
whom  it  was  to  break  and  be  broken. 

The  boys  reached  Calcutta  in  February,  1830. 
Alexander  Duff  came  in  the  same  year.  Henry  was 
sent  at  once  to  join  his  company  of  Foot  Artillery  at 
Kunol,  beyond  Delhi,  on  what  was  then  the  north- 
west frontier.    John  was  sent  for  the  study  of  the 


204  JOHN  LAWRENCE 

native  languages  to  Fort  William  College.  He  soon 
became  thoroughly  sick  of  India ;  the  Calcutta 
climate  did  not  agree  with  him.  He  had  no  taste 
for  the  empty  social  life.  He  longed  for  home,  but 
when  he  passed  the  language  examination  in  Urdu 
and  Persian,  and  was  sent  off,  at  his  request,  to 
frontier  work  at  Delhi,  "  there  was  now  no  more 
inaction,  no  more  halting  between  two  opinions. 
He  had  put  his  hand  to  the  plough  and  there  was  no 
looking  back.  He  shook  himself,  like  Samson,  and 
awoke  to  his  work.  From  the  present  moment  to 
the  very  end  of  his  official  life,  we  shall  find  no 
parallel  to  the  inaction  of  the  four  months  spent  in 
England  before  leaving  it  for  India,  or  to  the  depres- 
sion which  seems  to  have  dominated  him  during  the 
ten  months  he  spent  in  Calcutta  before  embarking  in 
his  active  work.  There  was,  henceforth,  no  nervous 
looking  forward  to  what  might  be,  or  backward  to 
what  might  have  been.  To  do  the  thing  that  lay  be- 
fore him,  to  do  it  thoroughly,  to  do  it  with  all  his 
might,  not  regarding  the  consequences  and  not  turn- 
ing either  to  the  right  hand  or  the  left — this  was 
henceforward  the  ruling  principle  of  his  life."  This 
is  the  right  prescription  for  homesickness,  for  all 
indolence — work.  That  is  the  first  great  missionary 
lesson  from  his  life.  Trollope  held  that  the  best  cure 
for  the  disposition  to  shirk  in  writers  was  beeswax  on 
their  chairs,  and  for  missionaries,  as  for  all  men,  no 
medicine  is  so  good  as  the  medicine  of  stiff  duty 
crowding  them  hard  and  driving  them  to  unselfish- 
ness, whether  they  will  or  no. 

The  town   and  district  of  Delhi  were  under  the 
control  of  a  British  officer  entitled  ''Eesident  and 


THE  CHRISTIAN  STATESMAN  205 

Chief  Commissiouer."  Lawrence's  first  work  was  as 
"assistant  judge,  magistrate  and  collector"  of  the 
city  and  its  environs.  He  was  here  for  four  years 
and  at  once  put  all  that  he  was  into  his  work.  The 
principles  of  the  Delhi  administration  were  to  save 
as  much  of  the  native  institutions  as  possible, 
especially  of  the  old  village  communities,  and  from 
the  outset  Lawrence  entered  with  hearty  sympathy 
into  the  life  of  the  people.  He  had  much  greater 
opportunity  for  this  upon  the  close  of  his  apprentice- 
ship and  his  consequent  transfer  to  the  charge  of  the 
Paniput  district.  In  Delhi  he  had  been  associated 
with  others  and  had  made  the  friendship  of  Charles 
Trevelyan,  one  of  the  best  men  in  India,  to  be  ever 
his  friend  and  later  his  valued  helper,  from  whom 
even  now  we  could  learn  lessons  of  fearless  honour 
and  resolute  opposition  to  corruption  in  all  places 
high  and  low.  In  Paniput,  Lawrence  was  practically 
alone.  How  he  did  his  work  is  best  indicated  by  the 
description  given  by  Mr.  Charles  Eaikes,  who  went 
out  to  help  him  : 

**  Over  some  400,000  of  a  population,  scattered  in  large 
villages  through  an  area  of  800,000  acres,  John  Lawrence 
ruled  supreme.  He  himself  in  those  days  had  very  much 
the  cut  of  a  Jat,  being  wiry,  tall,  muscular,  rather  dark  in 
complexion,  and  without  an  ounce  of  superfluous  fat  or 
flesh.  He  usually  wore  a  sort  of  compromise  between 
English  and  Indian  costume,  had  his  arms  ready  at  hand, 
and  led  a  life  as  primus  inter  pares,  rather  than  a  foreigner 
or  a  despot,  among  the  people.  Yet  a  despot  he  was,  as 
any  man  soon  discovered  who  was  bold  enough  or  silly 
enough  to  question  his  legitimate  authority — a  despot,  but 


206  JOHN  LAWRENCE 

full  of  kindly  feelings,  and  devoted  heart  and  soul  to  duty 
and  hard  work,     .     .     . 

"  First,  he  was  at  all  times  and  in  all  places,  even  in  his 
bedroom,  accessible  to  the  people  of  his  district.  He 
loved  his  joke  with  the  sturdy  farmers,  his  chat  with  the 
city  bankers,  his  argument  with  the  native  gentry,  few  and 
far  between.  When  out  with  his  dogs  and  gun  he  had  no 
end  of  questions  to  ask  every  man  he  met.  After  a  gallop 
across  country,  he  would  rest  on  a  charpoy,  or  country 
bed,  and  hold  an  impromptu  levee  of  ail  the  village  folk, 
from  the  headman  to  the  barber.  *  Jan  Larens,'  said  the 
people,  *sub  janta,'  that  is,  knows  everything.  For  this 
very  reason  he  was  a  powerful  magistrate,  and,  I  may  here 
add,  a  brilliant  and  invaluable  revenue  officer. 

"Secondly,  he  was  never  above  his  work.  I  have  an 
indistinct  recollection  of  his  arresting  a  murderer,  on  re- 
ceiving intelligence  of  the  crime,  with  his  own  hand.  At 
all  events,  when  the  report  of  a  murder,  an  affray  with 
wounding,  or  a  serious  robbery  came  in,  John  Lawrence 
was  at  once  in  the  saddle  and  off  to  the  spot.  With  greater 
deliberation,  but  equal  self-devotion,  he  proceeded  to  the 
spot  to  investigate  important  disputes  about  land,  crops, 
water  privileges,  boundaries,  and  so  forth.  The  Persian 
proverb,  '  Disputes  about  land  must  be  settled  on  the  land,' 
was  often  on  his  tongue. 

"Thirdly,  owing  to  this  determination  to  go  about  for 
himself  and  to  hear  what  everybody  had  to  say  about 
everything,  he  shook  off,  nay,  he  utterly  confounded,  the 
tribe  of  flatterers,  sycophants,  and  informers  who,  when 
they  can  get  the  opportunity,  dog  the  steps  of  the  Indian 
ruler.  What  chance  had  an  informer  with  a  man  who  was 
bent  on  seeing  everything  with  his  own  eyes  ?     .     .     . 

"  I  was  younger  than  Lawrence,  and  had  been  only 


THE  CHRISTIAN  STATESMAN  207 

three  or  four  years  in  India  when  I  went  to  join  him  at 
Paniput.  For  very  good  reasons  I  shall  never  forget  my 
first  interview  with  my  chief.  He  was,  I  was  going  to  say, 
in  his  shirt-sleeves,  only  I  am  not  sure  that  he  wore  a  shirt 
in  those  days — I  think  he  had  a  chupkun,  or  native  under- 
garment— surrounded  by  what  seemed  to  me  a  mob  of  na- 
tives, with  two  or  three  dogs  at  his  feet,  talking,  writing, 
dictating — in  short,  doing  cutcherry.     .     .     . 

"Lawrence  trusted  me  and  taught  me  to  trust  myself. 
From  that  hour  my  fortune  as  a  public  officer  was  made. 
I  learned  my  work  under  the  ablest  of  masters,  and  shall 
ever  gratefully  remember  the  day  which  saw  me  installed 
as  assistant  to  the  young  magistrate  and  collector  of 
Paniput." 

Here  Lawrence  found  opportunity  and  necessity 
alike  for  the  complete  identification  of  his  life  with 
the  native  people.  That  is  the  second  great  missionary 
lesson  from  his  life.  He  talked  their  language  as  he 
talked  his  own.  At  times  among  them  he  could 
speak  their  tongue  even  better  than  he  could  Ms  own. 
A  young  civilian,  who  went  to  call  one  day  as  he 
passed  through,  reported  that  he  could  hardly  under- 
stand him,  his  conversation  had  been  so  full  of  Per- 
sian words  and  expressions. 

These  principles  became  the  characteristics  of  the 
school  of  officials  whom  John  Lawrence  raised  up,  who 
were  known  as  the  Punjab  School.  They  knew  the 
people  and  loved  them.  They  made  it  their  business 
to  understand  and  sympathize  with  their  institutions 
and  ideas.  In  the  Paniput  days  Lawrence  began  the 
easy,  familiar  relations  with  the  native  people  of  all 
classes  which  put  him  in  a  position  of  almost  irresisti- 


2o8  JOHN  LAWRENCE 

ble  power  among  them.  He  knew  them,  and  they 
knew  that  he  knew  them. 

From  Paniput  Lawrence  stepped  down  to  an  in- 
ferior appointment  at  Gorgaou.  But  he  was  ready 
for  any  service,  and  while  he  had  probably  more  pride 
of  position  than  Gordon  had,  yet  as  Gordon  was  ready 
to  descend  from  a  governor-generalship  to  be  a  pri- 
vate secretary,  so  Lawrence  wanted  not  honor  but 
work.  From  Gorgaon  Lawrence  was  called  off  in 
1838  to  be  settlement  officer  at  Etawa  under  Eobert 
Bird.  Bird  was  one  of  those  great  geniuses,  of  rare 
character  and  of  rare  tact  and  intellectual  power,  who 
do  great  and  unnoticed  work  in  the  world  and  die  in 
quietness  unremembered.  He  untangled  the  land 
confusion  in  the  northwest  provinces,  and  settled  in 
equity  the  most  vital  problems  in  the  lives  of  a  great 
agricultural  community  like  India.  To  be  chosen 
by  Bird  as  one  of  his  helpers  was  considered  by  men 
a  form  of  advancement  and  mark  of  honour.  As- 
sociated with  him  was  James  Thomason,  another  of 
the  greatest  and  best  of  the  East  India  Company's 
servants  who  rose  to  be  Lieutenant-Governor  of  the 
northwest  provinces  during  Dalhousie's  viceroy alty. 
The  two  men  were  of  the  same  Christian  type. 
Thomsison  wrote  that  he  found  Bird  '  *  so  instructive 
and  communicative  on  subjects  which  regard  another 
world,"  and  they  discussed  together  how  to  carry  out 
their  Christian  principles  into  their  daily  walk  as 
public  servants. 

After  this  illness,  Lawrence  was  ordered  home  for 
a  three  years'  furlough,  and  arrived  in  England  at 
Christmas,  having  risen  steadily  in  his  work  in  India, 
"half  a  head  above  his  fellows,"  as  one  expressed  it. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  STATESMAN  209 

and  yet  having  given  no  full  promise  of  what  was  in 
him  and  to  come  out  of  him.  One  of  his  desires  on 
furlough  was  to  get  married,  to  find  a  "calamity," 
as  he  expressed  it.  He  went  to  Bath,  but  that  sum- 
mer resort  was  not  his  style.  *'  His  manners  and  ap- 
pearance," says  one  who  was  a  young  girl  in  the 
house  where  he  was  visiting,  * '  were  utterly  unlike 
the  ordinary  young  men  we  met  in  Bath.  It  was 
difiicult  not  to  feel  a  little  shocked  at  first  by  his 
roughness  and  absence  of  conventionality  ;  still  there 
was  so  much  force  and  originality  apparent  in  his 
whole  character  that  one  soon  forgot  the  defects  of 
manner,  and  became  interested  in  his  conversation. 
As  I  remember  him  he  seemed  to  me  to  embody 
Prof.  Henry  Morley's  notion  of  the  qualities  which 
have  given  to  Englishmen  their  proud  position  in  the 
world,  namely,  'the  determination  to  find  out  the 
right  and  get  it  done  ;  find  out  the  wrong  and  get 
it  undone.'  "  In  August,  1841,  he  was  married 
to  the  sort  of  wife  his  mother  had  prescribed. 
After  the  honeymoon  he  was  seized  with  a  long  illness 
which  made  the  doctors  tell  him  that  he  must  give  up 
all  idea  of  returning  to  India.  "If  I  can't  live  in 
India,"  was  his  reply,  "I  must  go  and  die  there," 
and  he  sailed  for  Calcutta  in  October,  1842. 

The  first  Afghan  war,  fought,  as  were  all  the  Afghan 
wars,  in  behalf  of  a  principle  to  which  he  was  always 
opposed,  occurred  during  Lawrence's  furlough.  When 
he  returned,  his  first  post  was  as  Magistrate  of  Delhi. 
It  was  the  same  kind  of  work  he  had  done  before, 
only  in  a  more  conspicuous  place,  and  the  man  him- 
self was  grown  to  match.  While  he  held  this  post 
the  first  Sikh  "War  was  fought,  ending  in  the  annexa- 


2IO  JOHN  LAWRENCE 

tion  of  the  Jullundur  Doab  and  the  location  of  a  resi- 
dent at  Lahore,  the  Punjab  to  remain  independent. 
Henry  Lawrence  was  sent  to  Lahore  and  John  was 
placed  in  charge  of  the  territory  that  had  been  an- 
nexed. John  Lawrence  plunged  in  with  characteristic 
energy,  and  during  his  tenure  of  the  Jullundur  Doab, 
he  set  it  in  order,  established  in  it  a  model  rule  and 
hewed  out  those  principles  of  administration  which 
were  to  prevail  through  the  entire  Punjab,  and  make 
it  the  rock  of  defense  and  deliverance  in  the  storm  of 
the  Mutiny.  It  was  under  these  men  that  John 
Lawrence's  school — Montgomery,  McLeod,  Thorn- 
ton and  others — was  formed.  They  were  men  who 
did  not  separate,  as  one  of  our  great  public  characters 
had  bidden  us  to  do,  their  religious  faith  from  their 
public  service. 

Lawrence  never  spoke  slightingly  of  any  post  of 
duty  to  which  he  was  assigned,  save  in  the  case  of 
Etawa, — "that  hole  Etawa,"  he  called  it.  His  bi- 
ographer is  sure  that  this  was  ''  not  because  it  brought 
him  too  much  discomfort  or  difficulty  or  work,  but 
because  it  brought  him  too  little."  In  connection 
with  Lawrence's  work  at  Etawa,  several  incidents  are 
related  illustrative  of  his  capacity  for  anger  and  his 
iron  will. 

"Like  Cromwell,  John  Lawrence  was  rough  and  down- 
right in  all  he  said  and  did.  Like  Cromwell,  he  cared 
naught  for  appearances,  spoke  his  mind  freely,  swept  all 
cobwebs  out  of  his  path,  worked  like  a  horse  himself,  and 
insisted  on  hard  work  in  others.  The  natives,  if  they  did 
not  love  him,  regarded  him  with  veneration  and  with  trust, 
at  all  events,  as  somebody  to  be  obeyed.     They  respect  a 


THE   CHRISTIAN   STATESMAN  211 

man  who  will  be  down  upon  them  in  a  moment  for  any- 
thing that  is  wrong,  provided  only  that  he  is  scrupulously 
just,  and  this  John  Lawrence  always  was.  His  voice  was 
loud,  his  presence  commanding ;  his  gray  eye,  deep-set  and 
kindly  as  it  was,  glared  terribly  when  it  was  aroused  by 
anything  mean  or  cowardly  or  wrong.  His  temper — the 
Lawrences  were  all  naturally  quick-tempered — was  gener- 
ally well  under  control ;  but  when  he  felt,  like  Jonah,  '  that 
he  did  well  to  be  angry,'  there  was  no  mistake  at  all 
about  it."* 

In  1839  he  fell  seriously  ill  of  jungle  fever. 

*'  He  had  often  been  heard  to  say,  in  the  abounding  and 
jubilant  strength  of  his  youth,  that  he  was  sure  that  many 
a  man  need  not  die,  if  he  made  up  his  mind  not  to  do  so. 
But  he  was  now  rapidly  becoming  worse  and  appeared  to 
be  in  a  state  of  collapse.  One  day  the  doctor  who  had 
been  attending  him  told  him  that  he  feared  he  could  hardly 
live  till  the  following  morning,  and  took  leave  of  him  ac- 
cordingly. No  sooner  was  he  gone  than  his  patient  roused 
himself  to  the  emergency.  Now  was  the  chance  of  putting 
his  favourite  maxim  to  the  test.  He  determined  not  to 
die,  and  bade  his  servant  give  him  a  bottle  of  burgundy 
which  lay  in  a  box  beneath  his  bed.  He  drank  it  off,  and 
next  day  when  the  doctor  called,  by  way  of  form,  expect- 
ing to  find  that  all  was  over,  he  found  John  Lawrence  sit- 
ting up  at  his  desk,  clothed  and  in  his  right  mind,  and  ac- 
tually casting  up  his  settlement  accounts."  ^ 

There  may  be  some  who  will  think  that  such  exhi- 
bitions of  wrath  and  self-will  poorly  show  forth  the 

> Smith,  "  Life  of  Lord  Lawrence,"  Vol.  I,  p.  101. 
« Ibid.,  p.  112. 


212  JOHN   LAWRENCE 

Christian  character  of  Eobert  Bird's  disciple.  But 
such  power  is  better  for  God's  use  than  tame  im- 
becility. 

"  He  as  He  wills  shall  solder  and  shall  sunder 
Slay  in  a  day  and  quicken  in  an  hour 
Tune  Him  a  music  from  the  sons  of  thunder 
Forge  and  transform  my  passion  into  power. 

*'  So  with  the  Lord  :  He  takes  and  He  refuses 
Finds  Him  ambassadors  whom  men  deny 
Wise  ones  nor  mighty  for  His  saints  He  chooseSj 
No  such  as  John,  or  Gideon,  or  I." 

Lawrence  ruled  the  Jullundur  Doab  with  a  just 
hand  but  it  was  very  strong.  The  infanticide,  suttee, 
and  living  burial  of  lepers  and  punishment  for  witch- 
craft he  put  down,  and  it  was  no  easy  task.  He  did 
all  the  other  things  which  he  had  done  at  Paniput 
but  these  things  especially  I  refer  to  because  we  have 
heard  so  many  smooth  Swamis  and  soft  Americans 
declaring  that  the  tales  of  infanticide  and  suttee  in 
India  came  from  missionary  slanders. 

"So  wholesale,"  says  Mr.  Bosworth  Smith,  "was  the 
destruction  of  female  infant  life  that,  when  the  attention  of 
philanthropists  was  first  directed  to  it,  whole  village  com- 
munities were  found  to  be  without  a  single  girl. 
Nor  was  the  practice  confined  to  the  Rajputs.  It  was  still 
more  universal  among  the  Bedis,  who  were  a  subdivision 
of  the  Khuttri  caste  and  traced  back  their  descent  to  the 
Guru  Nanuk.  They  had  never  allowed  a  single  female 
child  to  live,  and  when  the  Bedi  of  Oona,  the  head  of  the 
tribe — in  fact,  the  spiritual  head  of  the  Sikh  religion — was 
warned  by  John  Lawrence  that  he  must  forbid  infanticide 


THE   CHRISTIAN   STATESMAN  213 

throughout  his  jagheer,  he  replied  that  if  the  Sahib  so 
willed  it  he  would  never  enter  his  harem  again,  and  would 
influence,  so  far  as  he  could  rightly  do  so,  others  to  do  the 
same,  but  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  command  his 
dependents  to  give  up  so  treasured  a  custom.  *  You  must 
do  it  or  give  up  your  lands,'  rejoined  John,  and  the  stiff- 
necked  old  Levite  acquiesced  in  the  lesser  of  two  evils,  and 
did  give  up — his  lands.  Those  who  have  never  seen  John 
Lawrence,  but  have  accompanied  me  thus  far  in  my  efforts 
to  reproduce  the  living  man,  can  imagine  the  grim  patience 
with  which  he  would  listen  to  a  solemn  deputation  from  the 
whole  priestly  race  whose  most  cherished  practice  he  was 
thus  rudely  threatening,  and  who  based  their  petition  on 
the  proclamation  issued  by  the  Governor-General  that  all 
their  rights  and  customs  would  be  respected.  *  These 
Bedis,'  he  writes  to  a  friend,  'are  an  extraordinary  people. 
You  will  scarcely  believe  it  when  I  tell  you  that  they 
publicly  petitioned  me  for  permission  to  destroy  all  their 
female  children  ;  which  it  seems  they  have  hitherto  invari- 
ably done.  I  sent  for  some  of  the  most  respectable  of 
them,  and  set  forth  the  enormity  of  the  crime,  and  our 
detestation  of  the  practice,  before  some  hundreds  of  peo- 
ple, and  ended  by  telling  them  that  government  would  not 
only  never  consent  to  such  a  villainous  crime  being  per- 
petuated under  its  rule,  but  that  we  should  certainly  hang 
every  man  who  was  convicted  of  such  a  murder."  * 

At  the  time  such  conduct  was  denounced  by  many 
as  an  unwarranted  interference  with  the  religions  of 
the  people.  Now  that  the  practices  are  stopped  by 
such  measures  as  John  Lawrence  used,  it  is  denied 
that  they  ever  existed.  If  it  had  not  been  for  such  a 
». Smith,  "Life  of  Lord  Lawrence,"  Vol.  I,  p.  184  f. 


214  JOHN  LAWRENCE 

strong  band  in  India,  those  practices  deep  seated  in 
the  religion  of  India  would  be  going  on  to-day.  The 
special  patron  of  female  infanticide  in  the  Punjab  was 
the  Sikh  high  priest,  Bedi  Bikrama  Sing. 

John  Lawrence  used  plain  speech  in  other  matters 
than  the  suppression  of  the  slaughter  of  baby  girls. 
He  spoke  his  mind  to  British  officials  as  well  as  to 
native  offenders.  Indeed  his  practice  was  to  speak 
his  praise  behind  a  man's  back,  but  his  reproof  or 
condemnation  to  his  face.  **I  have  received  your 
letter,"  he  writes  in  one  case.  "  As  I  do  not  agree  in 
any  respect  with  the  views  you  there  lay  down,  I 
think  it  kinder  and  fairer  to  write  to  you  privately 
on  the  subject  before  I  take  any  public  notice  of  the 
matter."      He  was  as  plain  with  native  chiefs. 

And  he  would  speak  as  plainly  to  his  friends. 
"Writing  once  to  Lord  Canning,  he  said,  "Your  lord- 
ship may  depend  that  I  will  write  nothing  but  the 
truth.  My  feelings  are  so  strongly  enlisted  in  my 
public  duties,  that  I  may  almost  say  that  I  have  no 
friends  independent  of  such  considerations.  My  best 
friends  are  the  officers  of  whom  I  think  best  in  my 
public  relations,"  This  was  a  pretty  high  claim,  but 
it  was  not  undeserved,  and  on  just  this  account  he 
had  the  firmest  and  best  friends,  men  whose  friend- 
ship rested  on  solid  grounds  beyond  the  reach  of  all 
self-interest  and  who  loved  him  the  more  because  he 
was  a  man  who  would  never  "job  for  his  friends, 
who  never  failed  to  tell  them  of  their  shortcomings, 
however  ready  he  may  be  to  bear  with  them ;  who  is 
chary  of  his  praise  to  their  face,  however  lavish  he 
may  be  of  it  behind  their  backs  ;  who  thinks  nothing 
done  while  aught  remains  undone  ;  who  regards  the 


THE  CHRISTIAN  STATESMAN  21$ 

performance  of  duty  by  himself  and  by  others  as  a 
matter  of  course,  rather  than  as  requiring  '  generous 
recognition.'  "  He  would  have  laughed  at  that  melo- 
dramatic jewelry  known  as  the  Carnegie  medal. 

Lawrence's  work  in  the  Jullundur  Doab  melted 
into  his  larger  work  in  the  Punjab.  He  had  to  act 
for  his  brother  in  Lahore  but  wanted  to  go  back  to 
his  own  work  ;  ''  I  am  ready  to  do  what  government 
wants,"  he  writes,  "but,  personally,  I  prefer  my 
work  there.  It  is  a  new  country,  and  my  assistants 
need  looking  after  ;  and  I  want  to  put  my  stamp  on 
it,  that  in  after  times  people  may  look  back  and  re- 
call my  Eaj  with  satisfaction.  No  portion  of  our 
empire  promises  better  than  it  does." 

He  put  his  stamp  on  Jullundur,  and  on  all  north- 
western India,  and  on  all  India  and  on  the  English 
race  ;  for  the  second  Sikh  War  led  to  the  annexation 
of  the  Punjab,  and  to  the  establishment  by  Lord 
Dalhousie  of  a  Board  of  Three  Commissioners  to 
govern  it.  Henry  Lawrence  was  chairman  and  John 
was  one  of  the  two  other  members.  "What  this  Board 
accomplished  in  the  three  years  of  its  existence  is  one 
of  the  wonders  of  wise  and  capable  administration. 
The  directors  of  the  East  India  Company  were  "  good 
masters  but  very  chary  of  precious  words,"  but  even 
they  were  warm  in  their  appreciation  of  what  had 
been  done. 

Perhaps  the  best  aspect  of  the  work  the  Lawrences 
did  was  the  recognition  of  the  rights  and  spirit  of  the 
native  races.  Henry  Lawrence  was  ever  the  champion 
of  the  native  chiefs  and  people,  and  lived  and  died 
probably  the  best  beloved  Englishman  who  has  ever 
worked  in  India.     He  and  John  developed  the  sense 


2l6  JOHN   LAWRENCE 

of  local  responsibility  and  self-government,  and  be- 
gan the  work  of  riveting  the  Punjab  to  the  British 
rule  which  was  carried  forward  under  John  Law- 
rence's firm  hand  until  it  bore  the  terrific  strain 
which  fell  on  it  in  the  Mutiny. 

After  the  Board  of  Commissioners  was  dissolved, 
for  seven  years  John  Lawrence  ruled  the  Punjab 
as  Chief  Commissioner.  At  the  very  end  he  was 
given  the  title  of  Lieutenant-Governor,  but  for  all  these 
years  he  had  been  its  actual  governor  and  great  and 
assertive  as  Dalhousie  was,  he  did  not  overshadow 
John  Lawrence  or  destroy  the  force  of  his  personality 
or  the  grip  of  his  distinct  influence  in  the  Punjab. 
And  the  one  word  that  best  characterizes  Lawrence 
and  his  work  in  the  Punjab  is,  truth  :  true  work,  true 
dealing  with  men  and  true  motive  and  aim. 

In  the  first  place  he  was  a  terrific  worker.  He 
wrought  like  an  engine  himself  and  he  expected  the 
same  thing  in  others.     He  wrote  to  Edwardes  : 

"Our  officers  should  be  young  men,  rough-and- 
ready  fellows,  fit  to  put  their  hands  to  any  work 
against  time  and  tide.  I  cannot  believe  that  the 
treasury  can  take  up  the  time  of  one  officer.  If  I 
were  deputy-commissioner  I  would  be  bound  to  prove 
that  it  did  not  take  up  one-half  his  time.  I  don't 
speak  without  cause  ;  I  had  charge  of  a  treasury  for 
six  years,  unaided,  and  the  time  it  occupied  was 
hardly  appreciable.  For  instance,  if  I  had  to  see 
money  counted,  I  took  my  work  to  the  treasury,  and 
while  my  ears  were  hearing  reports  and  cases,  my 
eyes  were  looking  at  money  being  counted.  I  signed 
and  checked  bills  while  evidence  was  being  taken  by 
my  side.     Half  an  hour  a  day  sufficed  to  look  over  the 


THE   CHRISTIAN   STATESMAN  217 

accounts,  with  perhaps  a  couple  of  days'  extra  work 
in  a  couple  of  months."  "What  would  such  a  man  say 
of  some  of  our  puttering  half  meu"?  He  despised 
procrastination.  When  he  was  Governor-General  of 
all  India  he  got  through  each  day's  work  before  he 
went  to  bed.  Delay  was  the  one  blemish  he  saw  iu 
Donald  McLeod,  the  "  Cunctator  "  as  he  called  him, 
of  whom  he  complained  that  he  spent  too  much  time 
on  polishing  work  that  was  no  better  done  by  reason 
of  the  polishing,  and  he  wrote  frankly  to  McLeod  : 

"If  you  only  firmly  resolve  to  postpone  nothing 
that  can  be  disposed  of  at  the  time,  daily  getting 
through  what  comes  before  you,  there  will  be  nothing 
further  to  desire.  You  do  not,  I  think,  give  yourself 
fair  play.  You  are  like  a  racer  who,  instead  of  start- 
ing off  directly  the  signal  is  given,  waits  until  the 
others  have  got  well  ahead  before  he  commences  his 
running  ;  or,  perhaps,  what  is  nearer  the  mark,  you 
only  consent  to  make  play  when  you  have  packed  a 
good  mound  of  traps  on  your  back.  Now  pray  excuse 
these  ungracious  remarks.  There  is  no  man  who  re- 
gards and  respects  you  more  than  I  do,  or  who  could 
be  better  pleased  to  have  you  as  a  colleague.  I  see 
but  one  speck  on  your  official  escutcheon,  and,  like  an 
officious  friend,  desire  to  rub  it  out." 

In  his  work  he  never  thought  of  his  own  ease  or 
pleasure.  He  was  no  friend  of  indolence  and  for  some 
years  in  the  Punjab  no  vacation  at  all  was  allowed. 
Lord  Dalhousie  hinted  at  a  leave  for  a  relative  of  his, 
employed  in  the  Punjab.  Lawrence  replied  :  "He 
has  to  stay  ...  for  the  public  interest,"  This 
was  an  emergency,  of  course,  but  it  represented  his 
principle, — work  before  all  things  else. 


2l8  JOHN   LAWRENCE 

And  he  was  very  simple  and  frugal.  "Always 
liberal  with  his  private  funds,"  said  his  wife,  "and 
ready  to  help  others,  my  husband  spent  as  little 
as  possible  on  himself,  and  was  ever  sparing  of 
the  public  money,  anxiously  impressing  on  every  one 
the  necessity  of  strict  economy  in  the  management  of 
the  new  province. ' '  And  his  private  secretary,  at  the 
end  of  his  life,  tells  of  his  going  into  a  fruit  shop  in 
London  when  ill,  to  ask  about  some  tempting  straw- 
berries which  were  displayed.  When  told  the 
price  he  exclaimed,  "Spend  ten  shillings  on  myself 
for  such  a  purpose  !  I  never  did  such  a  thing 
in  my  life,"  and  he  marched  out  without  them.  He 
did  his  work  in  truth  and  he  handled  men  in 
truth. 

"John,"  said  Sir  Henry  Daly,  "never  deserted 
any  friend  of  Henry's  if  he  could  possibly  keep  him, 
and  hence  his  wonderful  forbearance  with  Nicholson. 
He  knew  perfectly  well  that  Nicholson  did  not  like 
him,  and  spoke  against  him.  But  such  things  never 
made  the  slightest  difference  in  his  behaviour  to  him 
or  to  any  one  else.  He  had  nothing  mean  or  small  in 
his  nature  ;  no  spite  or  malice.  He  was  the  biggest 
man  I  have  ever  known.  We  used  to  call  him  '  King 
John '  on  the  frontier,  and  it  is  as  such  that  I  still 
love  to  think  of  him." 

He  was  stern  and  strong  towards  men,  fearless  in 
speaking  his  mind  to  them  but  no  cross-grained  or 
imperious  character.  "  I  had,  in  my  imagination, 
pictured  Lawrence,"  says  Sir  Eichard  Temple  of  their 
first  meeting,  "as  an  iron-looking  man,  somewhat 
severe  in  tone  and  aspect,  with  a  massive  brow, 
straight  features,  and  compressed  lips,  uttering  few 


THE   CHRISTIAN   STATESMAN  219 

words,  and  those  only  of  a  dry  and  practical  import. 
His  conversation,  I  expected,  would  tend  towards 
statecraft  or  political  economy,  and  would  proceed  to 
the  point  and  nothing  but  the  point.  Great  was  my 
surprise,  then,  on  finding  that  he  had  an  open  coun- 
tenance, an  expansive  forehead,  a  frank,  genial  bear- 
ing, and  a  vivacious  manner  of  conversation.  The 
lips,  so  far  from  being  closely  set,  were  parted  con- 
stantly by  smiles  and  laughter."  He  handled  men 
by  commanding  their  respect  and  by  revealing  a 
superior  sense  of  duty  and  strength  in  its  perform- 
ance. 

And  once  again  he  had  the  true  motive  and  aim. 
He  loved  the  people  and  ruled  for  their  good.  That 
was  his  ambition.  His  last  word  on  leaving  India 
was,  "Be  just  and  kind  to  the  natives."  We  are 
told  nowadays  that  we  ought  not  to  call  the  people  of 
any  mission  land  natives,  much  less  heathen.  The 
word  "native"  can  be  spoken  meanly,  but  it  is  a 
good  word.  No  one  resented  it  on  John  Lawrence's 
lips.  On  one  occasion,  when  he  was  Viceroy,  "a 
young  officer  in  the  army,  who  was  talking,  after  the 
manner  of  his  kind,  contemptuously  of  the  natives, 
happened,  in  Sir  John's  hearing,  to  speak  of  them 
as  'those  niggers.'  'I  beg  your  pardon,'  said  Sir 
John,  '  of  what  people  were  you  speaking  ?  " '  The 
rebuke  did  its  work.  Lawrence,  like  Gordon,  was 
able  to  trust  men  of  whom  others  would  have  been 
afraid.  The  mutiny  was  put  down  by  native  troops 
whom  Lawrence  organized,  calling  in  even  old  Sikh 
leaders  who  had  been  among  the  greatest  sufferers 
from  the  Sikh  wars.  He  did  not  despise  the  race  he 
ruled.     No  man  can  really  help  and  win  the  love  of 


220  JOHN   LAWRENCE 

those  whom  he  does  not  respect,  whether  he  be  states- 
man or  missionary. 

And  in  the  larger  problem  of  British  government 
in  India  Lawrence  kept  his  head  and  followed  true 
ends.  He  was  opposed  to  the  Afghan  wars  and  was 
no  Eussophobist.  He  believed  that  Peshawar  was 
the  right  limit  of  India  to  the  northwest,  and  that 
India  should  be  governed  by  itself,  for  its  own  good, 
not  for  British  aggrandizement  or  as  a  base  for  British 
dominion  over  Asia.  And  for  all  his  great  services 
he  sought  no  reward.  He  accepted  quietly  such 
honours  as  came  to  him,  all  belated,  the  K.  C.  B.  for 
his  great  services  in  the  Punjab  and  the  baronetcy  for 
his  work  in  the  Mutiny,  and  the  peerage  when  at  last 
his  work  in  India  was  done.  And  he  went  on,  the 
same  frugal,  simple,  straight  working  man  as  before. 

The  time  has  come  to  speak  a  little  more  fully  of 
the  Mutiny.  Its  causes  were  varied  and  complex  j 
the  annexation  of  Oudh  and  the  consequent  discon- 
tent of  the  Sepoys,  almost  all  of  whom  were  from 
Oudh  and  who  lost  by  the  annexation  some  of  their 
most  valued  privileges,  the  plotting  of  dissatisfied 
Mohammedan  leaders,  unrest  at  the  settlement  of  land 
problems,  fear  of  enforced  conversion  to  Christianity 
due  to  the  greased  cartridge  scare  and  other  thiugs 
which  had  preceded  it,  longing  for  the  old  days  of 
easy  going  government  and  disorder  and  Oriental 
corruption,  the  dictatorialuess  of  the  British  rule,  the 
slow  absorption  of  the  native  states  and  the  destruc- 
tion of  native  rights  and  above  all  the  truckling  com- 
promisingness  of  the  government — these  were  among 
the  principal  reasons  for  the  Mutiny.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  the  Madras  and  Bombay  Sepoys  did  not  mutiny 


THE  CHRISTIAN  STATESMAN  221 

and  there  was  little  trouble  in  Bengal.  The  difiQculty 
was  in  the  Northwest  Provinces,  as  they  were  then 
called,  the  United  Provinces  of  Agra  and  Oudh  as 
they  are  called  now.  The  insurrection  cut  off  Calcutta 
from  the  Punjab  and  left  John  Lawrence  practical 
ruler  of  northern  India,  and  from  the  Punjab,  which 
his  work  had  made  secure  and  his  strong  arm  held  in 
quietness,  he  poured  out  the  men,  British  and  native, 
who  retook  Delhi,  which  was  the  storm  centre  of  the 
Mutiny  and  thus  broke  the  insurrection  at  its  heart. 
It  is  a  very  wonderful  story  worth  reading  in  all  its 
detail,  but  it  only  shows  John  Lawrence  in  a  time  of 
great  crisis  as  the  man  we  have  already  found  him  to 
be  in  times  of  quietness.  He  was  in  the  mighty 
hour  of  trial  what  he  had  been  in  the  calm  and  or- 
derly work  of  administration  for  eighteen  years.  The 
Mutiny  found  him  at  Eawal  Pendi.  It  struck  the 
mass  of  British  officials  dumb,  but  not  John  Law- 
rence. It  released  the  measureless  power  of  the  man. 
He  left  details  at  Lahore  and  other  points  to  the  men 
he  could  trust,  and  like  an  eagle  from  its  eyrie  he 
looked  out  over  the  whole  field  and  sent  his  enkin- 
dling messages  everywhere  while  he  drove  the  ma- 
chinery of  his  government  like  a  giant.  He  did  not 
fear  scanty  resources.  ''It  is  want  of  action  rather 
than  want  of  means,"  he  wrote  to  Edwardes,  "which 
may  prove  disastrous  to  us."  "When  the  commander- 
in-chief  hesitated  and  was  going  into  entrenchments 
at  Ambala,  he  telegraphed  to  him,  "Clubs,  not 
spades  are  trumps;  when  in  doubt,  take  the  trick," 
and  wrote  in  a  long  letter,  "  Pray  only  reflect  on  the 
whole  history  of  India.  When  have  we  failed  when 
we  acted  vigorously  ?    AVhen  have  we  succeeded  when 


222  JOHN   LAWRENCE 

guided  by  timid  councils?"  The  whole  Punjab 
thrilled  with  Lawrence's  zeal,  and  steady  but  impetu- 
ous resolution.  "  I  like  issuing  orders  by  telegraph," 
he  said,  * '  because  they  cannot  give  me  their  reason, 
nor  ask  me  for  mine."  When  others  faltered  he  was 
firm  ;  when  others  were  restless  he  was  calm  and 
patient.  When  others  were  confused,  he  saw  with 
clear  vision,  and  holding  unwaveringly  to  the  in- 
trepid policy  he  had  originated,  he  swung  the  great 
cause  through  to  success.  The  world  recognized  when 
the  Mutiny  was  put  down  that  it  was  Lawrence  who 
had  done  it.  "There  remains,"  said  the  Viceroy, 
Lord  Canning,  in  his  minute  on  the  services  of  civil 
officers  and  others  during  the  Mutiny,  ' '  the  large  and 
important  province  of  the  Punjab.  The  merits  of  the 
officers  to  whose  courage  and  ability  the  preserva- 
tion of  that  country  is  due  have  been  set  forth  by 
their  distinguished  chief,  Sir  John  Lawrence,  with  a 
fullness  which  leaves  little  to  be  added.  Of  what  is 
due  to  Sir  John  Lawrence  himself  no  man  is  ignorant. 
Through  him  Delhi  fell,  and  the  Punjab,  no  longer  a 
weakness,  became  a  source  of  strength.  But  for  him, 
the  hold  of  England  over  Upper  India  would  have 
had  to  be  recovered  at  a  cost  of  English  blood  and 
treasure  which  defies  calculation.  It  is  difficult  to 
exaggerate  the  value  of  such  ability,  vigilance,  and 
energy  at  such  a  time." 

When  the  Mutiny  was  over  Lawrence  was  given 
charge  of  Delhi  as  well  as  the  Punjab,  and  pacified 
and  consolidated  what  had  been  the  violent  centre  of 
the  tempest.  He  sided  with  Canning  in  the  policy  of 
clemency  towards  the  people  who  had  been  involved. 
He  loathed  the  spirit  of  revenge  and  cruelty  with 


THE  CHRISTIAN  STATESMAN  223 

■which  British  sentiment  in  India  and  at  home  urged 
that  the  mutineers  should  be  hunted  down.  We  for- 
get in  our  judgment  of  the  Eastern  people  that  their 
atrocities  have  been  matched,  at  a  distance,  at  least, 
by  ours,  and  that  if  they  have  been  guilty  of  massacre 
and  violence,  we  have  had  no  small  part  in  schooling 
them  to  regard  wrong  and  injustice  as  proper  qualities 
of  international  intercourse. 

For  two  years  after  the  Mutiny,  John  Lawrence 
continued  his  work  in  India  and  then  in  1859  went 
home  with  no  purpose  of  ever  returning  again.  He 
had  done  a  real  work.  He  had  left  his  stamp  not  on 
the  Jullundur  Doab  alone,  not  on  the  Punjab  alone, 
but  on  the  whole  of  India. 

Temple  was  the  secretary  who  wrote  his  reports. 
Asked  years  later  whether  the  reports  of  the  Board 
at  Lahore  were  not  too  highly  coloured,  he  replied, 
"There  is  not  a  word  in  the  Punjab  reports  which  I 
would  wish  unwritten.  On  the  contrary,  I  should 
feel  justified  in  speaking  now  even  more  strongly  of 
the  achievements  of  the  Board  than  I  did  then.  I 
have  borne  since  that  time  a  part  in  the  government 
of  nearly  every  province  in  India,  and  now,  looking 
back  upon  them  all,  I  declare  to  you  that  I  have 
seen  no  government  to  be  compared  with  that  of  the 
Lawrences  in  the  Punjab." 

When  Sir  John  Lawrence  left  the  Punjab  for  home 
he  received  a  long  address  signed  by  two  hundred 
and  eighty-two  civilians,  four  hundred  and  seventy- 
four  military  and  naval  officers,  fifteen  clergymen  and 
eighty-three  gentlemen  unconnected  with  the  govern- 
ment, in  which  these  men  who  had  known  him  well 
declared  : 


224  JOHN   LAWRENCE 

"All  of  US,  of  whatsoever  class  or  profession,  are 
conscious  of  the  untiring  energy,  unflinching  firm- 
ness, unswerving  honesty  of  purpose,  with  which  you 
have  devoted  yourself  to  promote  the  public  service. 
We  all  believe,  from  personal  knowledge  or  common 
fame,  that  you  have  been  an  instrument  in  the  hand 
of  Providence  for  the  preservation  of  British  rule  in 
Upper  India,  by  your  good  management  and  resolute 
bearing  during  a  period  of  unexampled  difficulty." 

The  address  was  a  testimony  which  few  other  men 
who  have  ever  ruled  their  own  or  other  races  could 
have  received.  But  Lawrence  had  only  done  what 
he  saw  was  his  duty.  That  was  his  spirit  and  the 
atmosphere  which  he  created  around  him.  Eobert 
Napier  described  this  in  a  noble  picture  of  the  Punjab 
as  it  was  under  the  two  men  of  God  who  have  left 
their  stamp  on  it  forever  : 

' '  There  was  a  glow  of  work  and  duty  round  us  all 
in  the  Punjab  in  those  days,  such  as  I  have  never 
felt  before  or  since.  I  well  remember  the  reaction 
of  feeling  when  I  went  on  furlough  to  England,  the 
want  of  pressure  of  any  kind,  the  self-seeking,  the 
want  of  high  aims  which  seemed  to  dull  and  dwarf 
you.  You  went  back  again  lowered  several  pegs, 
saddened  altogether.  The  atmosphere  was  differ- 
ent." 

And  now  Lawrence  went  home  to  the  meaner 
atmosphere.  He  found,  as  Lord  Stanley  had  written 
him  he  should,  his  name  and  service  in  every  one's 
mouth.  Oxford  and  Cambridge  each  gave  him  a 
D.  C.  L.  The  Queen  and  the  nobility  made  a  lion 
of  him,  but  nothing  could  spoil  his  plain  simplicity 
or  make  him  other  than  the  free  and  frugal  man  he 


THE  CHRISTIAN  STATESMAN  225 

had  always  been.  For  the  next  four  years  he  served 
in  the  Indian  Council  at  home.  Our  own  Civil  War 
broke  out  during  this  period  and  John  Lawrence  was 
one  of  the  Englishmen  who  from  the  first  firmly  de- 
sired the  preservation  of  the  Union. 

Lawrence's  work  for  India  in  India,  however,  was 
not  yet  done,  and  in  1864  he  was  sent  back  as  Viceroy 
to  the  laud  where  as  an  unknown  Irish  lad  he  had 
begun  his  work  thirty- four  years  before.  The  con- 
dition of  the  viceroyalty  had  greatly  changed  since 
Lawrence  went  to  India.  The  telegraph  had  brought 
Calcutta  into  immediate  contact  with  London,  and 
the  Mutiny  had  resulted  in  the  destruction  of  the 
East  India  Company  and  the  absorption  of  India 
under  the  British  crown.  These  changes  took  away 
from  the  Viceroy  his  old  imperial  power,  and  gave 
Lawrence  as  Governor- General  no  such  free  hand  as 
he  had  had  in  his  old  days  in  the  Punjab  as  a  com- 
missioner. But  he  did  not  lose  his  character  and 
reputation.  He  bent  all  his  energies  to  carry  on  the 
great  works  which  Dalhousie  had  originated.  The 
railway  and  telegraph  systems  were  largely  extended  ; 
sanitary  reforms  were  pushed  forward,  in  the  teeth 
of  much  native  prejudice  ;  barracks  fit  for  British 
troops  were  erected  on  a  large  scale,  with  reading- 
rooms,  workshops,  gardens  and  j^rayer-rooms ;  educa- 
tion was  vigorously  fostered,  especially  for  the  poor 
villagers  who  most  needed  it.  Dr.  George  Smith, 
then  the  leading  editor  in  India,  often  criticized 
Lawrence's  political  views  ;  but  of  these  measures 
for  the  benefit  of  the  people  he  wrote  :  ' '  He  is  great 
in  the  work  he  has  done  ;  he  is  great  in  the  moral 
spirit  in  which  he  has  done  every  act ;  in  the  lofty 


226  JOHN   LAWRENCE 

principle  which  has  guided  him  ;  in  his  noble  private 
character,  which  towers  above  that  of  any  of  his 
predecessors."  ' 

As  Viceroy  of  India,  Lawrence  was  the  same  un- 
conventional, unresting  character  as  ever.  He 
worked  in  his  shirt-sleeves.  He  contemptuously 
trod  upon  the  slaveries  of  viceregal  etiquette.  He 
toiled  on  the  "double  barrelled  principle  of  'no 
arrears,'  and  'what  you  do,  do  thoroughly.'  "  And 
the  great  Durbars  at  which  he  spoke  to  the  native 
chiefs  in  their  own  language — a  thing  no  other 
Governor-General  has  ever  been  able  to  do — showed 
that  he  could  put  on  the  viceregal  clothes  when  he 
wanted  to  show  the  viceregal  character,  which  he 
never  needed  to  put  on  because  he  wore  it  always. 
And  after  five  years  of  noble  service,  as  great  prob- 
ably as  any  man  could  have  rendered  under  the  con- 
ditions which  prevailed,  he  went  home  for  the 
remaining  ten  years  of  his  life. 

Within  a  few  weeks  of  his  return  to  England,  the 
long  delayed  elevation  to  the  peerage  which  was  his 
due  came  to  him,  and  amid  cheers  from  both  sides 
he  made  his  maiden  speech  in  the  House  of  Lords  on 
April  19,  1869.  He  served  two  years  as  chairman 
of  the  London  School  Board  with  Huxley,  putting 
himself  into  this  work  as  he  had  ever  done  in  all  his 
work.  He  took  a  large  part  in  settling  the  question 
of  religious  instruction,  and  while  he  was  on  the 
Board  the  resolution  was  adopted  ''that  the  Bible 
should  be  read,  and  that  there  should  be  given  such 
explanations  and  such  instructions  therefrom  on  the 
principles  of  morality  and  religion,  as  are  suited  to 
*  "  History  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society,"  Vol.  II,  p.  484. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  STATESMAN  227 

the  capacities  of  children."  His  eyesight  failed  him 
towards  the  close  and  his  secretary  had  to  read  to 
him,  but  he  was  full  of  activity  and  love,  of  firm 
principle  and  tenderness  to  the  end. 

He  had  some  last  work  to  do  in  fearlessly  warring 
against  the  government's  policy  in  Afghanistan, 
which  later  events  sufficiently  condemned,  confirm- 
ing the  old  sage's  every  judgment  and  prediction, 
and  then  on  June  25,  1879,  he  passed  on.  "Do  you 
know  me  1 ' '  whispered  his  wife.  ' '  To  my  last  gasp, 
my  darling,"  he  replied  quite  audibly  ;  and  as  she 
bent  down  to  give  him  her  last  kiss,  and  felt  the  last 
pressure  of  his  lips  and  hands  :  "I  am  so  weary,"  he 
said.  Such  were  the  words  which  those  who  stood 
around  his  bed  heard  him  murmuring  to  himself  as 
he  was  entering  the  land  where  the  weary  are  at  rest. 
So  lived  and  so  died  John  Lawrence. 

I  have  said  enough  about  John  Lawrence's  char- 
acter and  methods,  and  their  lessons  to  missionaries 
and  all  workers  in  the  living  movement  of  the  world 
are  sufSciently  obvious.  It  remains  to  say  some- 
thing, first,  about  his  religious  nature  ;  secondly,  his 
attitude  to  the  non-Christian  religions,  and  thirdly, 
his  relation  to  the  missionary  work. 

1.  John  Lawrence  and  the  Punjab  School  were 
men  of  devout  and  uncompromising  Christian  life. 
They  were  such  in  their  private  character.  '*  And  it 
is  to  be  remembered,"  says  Mr.  Bosworth  Smith, 
*  *  that  in  India  the  private  character  of  a  public  man 
is  a  more  important  element  in  estimating  his  general 
influence  even  than  it  is  in  England.  Indeed,  I  ques- 
tion whether  the  example  set  to  his  countrymen  at 
large  in  this  respect  by  Sir  John  Lawrence,  and  I 


228  JOHN  LAWRENCE 

might  add,  in  their  measure,  by  all  the  members  of 
the  Lawrence  School,  is  not  among  the  most  valuable 
of  all  the  services  which  he  and  they  rendered  to 
India.  Throughout  his  life,  even  in  the  early  Delhi 
and  Punjab  days,  John  Lawrence  had  set  his  face 
strongly  against  practices  which  it  is  easier  to  under- 
stand than  to  describe,  and  which  were  then  all  too 
common  among  our  countrymen  in  India.  No  one 
whose  character  was  not  above  suspicion  in  these 
respects  could  hope  to  stand  well  with  him,  even  in 
early  times.  Still  less  could  he  have  obtained  ac- 
cess now  to  his  viceregal  court.  Vice  of  all  kinds 
stood  abashed  in  his  presence.  Men,  aye,  women  too, 
'saw  how  awful  goodness  was.'  The  gambler,  the 
profane,  the  profligate,  the  flippant,  the  self-indul- 
gent, felt  that  his  court  was  no  place  for  them.  No 
one  ever  dropped  an  impure  word  or  made  an  im- 
pure allusion  in  his  presence.  No  one  ever  scoffed 
at  religion,  whether  his  own  or  that  of  the  natives. 
No  one  ever  spoke  contemptuously  or  harshly  of  the 
natives  themselves  without  receiving  from  him  a 
stern,  and  sometimes  a  sledge-hammer  rebuke.  On 
one  occasion  a  lady  who  was  sitting  at  the  viceregal 
table  allowed  herself  to  sneer  at  the  Bible.  Sir  John 
Lawrence  looked  sternly  on  her  and  said,  with  all  his 
dignity,  but  with  more  of  sorrow  than  of  anger  in 
his  words,  '  How  can  you  speak  like  that  of  God  and 
of  God's  Book  in  the  presence  of  these  young  men  ? ' 
The  next  minute  he  was  talking  with  her  of  other 
subjects  as  if  nothing  had  happened.  But  the  re- 
buke had  done  its  work  on  her  and  on  the  assembled 
company."  * 

» Smith,  "Life  of  Lord  Lawrence,"  Vol.  II,  p.  511. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  STATESMAN  229 

**  Amidst  his  great  successes,"  says  Mr.  Cust,  "and 
his  unparallelled  good  fortune,  he  had  the  grace  given 
him  to  remember  the  Hand  that  gave,  and  while 
mindful  of  things  temporal,  not  to  forget  the  things 
eternal.  He  set  the  example  of  a  bold,  independ- 
ent, and  yet  Christian  ruler,  an  uncrowned  king  of 
men  by  grace  and  election." 

When  he  became  Lord  Lawrence,  both  Lord  Shaftes- 
bury and  the  Duke  and  Duchess  of  Argyle  used  the 
name  of  God  in  congratulating  him.  He  and  they 
were  living  unto  Him. 

"  From  the  earliest  period  of  my  acquaintance  with 
him,"  says  Captain  East  wick,  ''he  was  a  decided 
Christian  ;  a  simple.  God-fearing  man,  who,  to  the 
best  of  his  ability,  translated  into  daily  practice  the 
precepts  of  the  Bible,  of  which  sacred  volume  he  was, 
to  my  certain  knowledge,  a  daily  assiduous  and  medi- 
tative reader.  I  have  often  seen  him,  when  his  sight 
had  grown  too  dim  to  allow  of  his  reading  other 
books,  spelling  out  slowly,  with  his  finger  on  the 
page,  a  few  verses  from  a  New  Testament  printed  in 
large  type." 

He  believed  in  prayer  and  prayed.  As  Viceroy, 
he  instituted  family  prayers  in  government  house, 
and  gave  orders  that  the  servants  and  others  con- 
nected with  it  should,  as  far  as  possible,  be  released 
from  labour  on  Sundays. 

' '  He  never  omitted  having  family  prayers  for  the 
household ;  and  he  and  I  hardly  ever  missed  our 
daily  reading  of  the  Bible  together,  even  when  he 
was  at  his  busiest,"  said  his  wife.  And  when  he  was 
losing  his  sight,  his  wife  says  "his  gentle  patience 
never  failed,"  and  she  recalled  "how  earnestly  he 


230  JOHN   LAWRENCE 

prayed  with  me  that  God  would  help  him  to  submit 
with  resignation  to  His  will." 

He  ever  observed  Sunday,  as  the  whole  Punjab 
School  did.  At  the  great  Durbars  at  Lahore  and 
Agra  all  festivities  ceased  on  Sunday,  and  there  were 
only  the  quiet  ordinary  services  of  the  church.  In 
his  speech  to  the  Lahore  Durbar  he  openly  recognized 
God. 

"I  will  now  only  add,"  he  said  in  closing,  "that  I 
pray  the  great  God,  who  is  the  God  of  all  the  races 
and  all  the  people  of  this  world,  that  He  may  guard 
and  protect  you,  and  teach  you  all  to  love  justice  and 
hate  oppression,  and  enable  you,  each  in  his  sev- 
eral ways,  to  do  all  the  good  in  his  power.  May  He 
give  you  all  that  is  for  your  real  benefit." 

He  was  not  a  Viceroy  after  the  style  of  some  who 
went  before  and  came  after  him.  His  simple  pres- 
ence at  the  head  of  the  government  was  a  help  to  all 
missions  and  a  preaching  of  the  Christian  Gospel  by 
character  and  act  and  word  also  from  the  highest 
pulpit  in  India. 

2.  John  Lawrence  was  never  soft  in  his  thoughts 
or  words  about  the  immoralities  or  superstitions  of 
the  Indian  religions.  He  spent  a  deal  of  strength 
fighting  the  practice  of  infanticide  which  was  im- 
bedded in  the  native  religion,  and  in  those  same  ear- 
lier days  he  was  wont  to  chaff  the  people  upon  their 
foolish  beliefs.  When  he  was  Viceroy  the  Hindus 
were  forbidden  to  throw  their  dead  bodies  into  the 
Hoogly,  and  after  the  first  Sikh  War  he  declined  to 
continue  feudatory  arrangements  in  support  of  tem- 
ples, converting  all  such  into  money  payments. 
After  the  Mutiny,  however,  he  refused  to  allow  any 


THE   CHRISTIAN   STATESMAN  23 1 

injustice.  When  it  was  proposed  to  destroy  mosques 
or  temples,  "  I  will  on  no  account  consent  to  it,"  he 
said.  ' '  We  should  lawfully  abstain  from  the  destruc- 
tion of  religious  edifices,  either  to  favour  friends  or  to 
annoy  foes."  And  he  insisted  on  the  restoration  of 
temples  and  mosques  to  the  people  for  their  original 
uses  ''  He  did  not  appear  to  have  turned  his  atten- 
tion," says  Temple,  "towards  the  philosophical, 
ideal,  and  metaphysical  phases  of  Hindu  thought. 
But  of  the  priestly  and  fanatical  classes  among  Mo- 
hammedans he  had  a  vivid  and  exact  appreciation, 
which  he  would  embody  in  forcible  language." 

The  great  problem  in  this  sphere,  however,  on 
which  the  position  of  Lawrence  is  most  interesting 
was  the  question  of  religious  neutrality  on  the  part 
of  the  government.  The  East  India  Company  had 
started  out  by  opposing  Christianity  and  fostering 
the  native  religion,  idolatry  and  immorality  and  all. 
Gradually  it  was  forced  by  public  opinion  at  home, 
and  the  character  of  some  of  its  agents  in  India,  to 
discontinue  all  its  support  of  the  heathen  religion, 
but  varying  views  prevailed  as  to  what  government 
officers  might  or  might  not  do  in  supporting  Chris- 
tianity in  their  personal  capacities.  In  the  Punjab 
Lawrence,  Edwardes  and  their  school  had  always  been 
perfectly  fearless  in  their  position,  supporting  Chris- 
tian missions  and  living  and  avowing  their  Christian 
principles.  When  the  Mutiny  broke  out  it  was  real- 
ized that  if  the  Sepoys  had  known  what  Christianity 
was  they  would  never  have  been  played  upon  as  they 
were.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Sepoy  armies  in  which 
there  were  Christians  did  not  mutiny.  It  was  only 
the  Bengal  Sepoys  among  whom  the  government  had 


232  JOHN   LAWRENCE 

practically  prohibited  Christianity.  After  the  Mu- 
tiny, accordingly,  there  were  many  who  argued  that 
the  time  had  come  for  the  government  to  be  openly 
and  avowedly  Christian.  Some  held  that  the  Mutiny 
was  a  judgment  of  God  for  England's  perfidy  to 
Christianity  in  the  past.  Among  the  most  outspoken 
advocates  of  a  Christian  policy  was  Sir  Herbert  Ed- 
wardes.  He  addressed  to  Lawrence  a  long  and  able 
' '  Memorandum  on  the  Elimination  of  all  Unchristian 
Principles  from  the  Government  of  India,"  to  which 
through  his  secretary  Lawrence  made  a  reply  of 
which  the  following  were  the  concluding  paragraphs  : 

"The  various  points  named  for  discussion  have  now 
been  reviewed.  Before  concluding  this  letter  I  am  to  state 
that  Sir  J.  Lawrence  has  been  led,  in  common  with  others, 
since  the  occurrence  of  the  awful  events  of  1857,  to  pon- 
der deeply  on  what  may  be  the  faults  and  shortcomings  of 
the  British  as  a  Christian  nation  in  India.  In  considering 
topics  such  as  those  treated  of  in  this  despatch  he  would 
solely  endeavour  to  ascertain  what  is  our  Christian  duty. 
Having  ascertained  that  according  to  our  erring  lights  and 
conscience,  he  would  follow  it  out  to  the  uttermost,  unde- 
terred by  any  consideration.  If  we  address  ourselves  to 
this  task,  it  may,  with  the  blessing  of  Providence,  not  prove 
too  difficult  for  us.  Measures  have,  indeed,  been  proposed 
as  essential  to  be  adopted  by  a  Christian  government  which 
would  be  truly  difficult  or  impossible  of  execution.  But 
on  closer  consideration,  it  will  be  found  that  such  measures 
are  not  enjoined  by  Christianity,  but  are  contrary  to  its 
spirit.  Sir  John  Lawrence  does,  I  am  to  state,  entertain 
the  earnest  belief  that  all  those  measures  which  are  really 
and  truly  Christian  can  be  carried  out  in  India,  not  only 


THE  CHRISTIAN  STATESMAN  233 

without  danger  to  British  rule,  but  on  the  contrary  with 
every  advantage  to  its  stability.  Christian  things  done  in 
a  Christian  way  will  never ^  the  chief  commissioner  is  con- 
vinced, alienate  the  heathen.  About  such  things  there  are 
qualities  which  do  not  provoke  nor  excite  distrust,  nor 
harden  to  resistance.  It  is  when  unchristian  things  are 
done  in  the  name  of  Christianity,  or  when  Christian  things 
are  done  in  an  unchristian  way,  that  mischief  and  danger 
are  occasioned.  The  difficulty  is,  amid  the  political  com- 
plications, the  conflicting  social  considerations,  the  fears 
and  hopes  of  self-interest  which  are  so  apt  to  mislead  hu- 
man judgment,  to  discern  clearly  what  is  imposed  upon  us 
by  Christian  duty  and  what  is  not.  Having  discerned 
this,  we  have  but  to  put  it  into  practice.  Sir  John  Law- 
rence is  satisfied  that  within  the  territories  committed  to 
his  charge  he  can  carry  out  all  those  measures  which  are 
really  matters  of  Christian  duty  on  the  part  of  the  govern- 
ment. And,  further,  he  believes  that  such  measures  will 
arouse  no  danger ;  will  conciliate  instead  of  provoking ; 
and  will  subserve  the  ultimate  diffusion  of  the  truth  among 
the  people. 

"Finally,  the  chief  commissioner  would  recommend  that 
such  measures  and  policy,  having  been  deliberately  de- 
termined on  by  the  supreme  government,  be  openly  avowed 
and  universally  acted  upon  throughout  the  empire ;  so  that 
there  may  be  no  diversities  of  practice,  no  isolated,  tenta- 
tive, or  conflicting  efforts,  which  are,  indeed,  the  surest 
means  of  exciting  distrust ;  so  that  the  people  may  see  that 
we  have  no  sudden  or  sinister  designs ;  and  so  that  we  may 
exhibit  that  harmony  and  uniformity  of  conduct  which  be- 
fits a  Christian  nation  striving  to  do  its  duty." 

Althougli  this  reply  did  not  accept  Edwardes'  po- 


234  JOHN   LAWRENCE 

sitions,  it  weut  far  towards  doing  so.  Edwardes 
wrote  of  it :  "  It  is  a  noble  expression  of  the  duty  of 
the  Indian  government  to  do  whatever  Christianity 
requires,  at  whatever  cost ;  and  it  only  differs  from 
mine  as  to  what  Christianity  does  demand  of  us,  and 
what  it  does  not."  In  other  words,  the  principles 
were  identical,  but  the  application  of  them  different. 
Again  he  wrote,  "  It  is  a  fine  manifesto,  and  I  rejoice 
to  have  elicited  it."  Of  a  paper  by  Donald  McLeod, 
with  which  Lawrence  agreed,  Edwardes  generously 
said,  "I  rejoice  to  have  fulfilled  the  office  of  a  pump, 
and  drawn  so  much  sweet  water  to  the  surface." 

Lawrence's  view  was  not  a  negation  of  any  positive 
change.  He  was  strongly  in  favour  of  a  positive 
course  of  action  on  the  part  of  the  government. 

"There  is  now,"  he  wrote  to  Trevelyan,  "a  great 
dispute  growing  up  as  to  whether  the  Bible  shall  be 
introduced  into  our  schools  or  not.  I  think  that  it 
should,  and  that — provided  only  it  be  done  with 
prudence  and  tact — the  people  will  never  raise  an  ob- 
jection. All  that  we  have  to  do  is  to  take  care  that 
the  study  of  the  Bible  be  optional  with  the  children." 

And  to  his  friend,  William  Arnold,  a  son  of  Dr. 
Arnold  of  Eugby,  and  the  able  Director  of  Public 
Instruction  in  the  Punjab,  who  took  strongly  the  op- 
posite view,  and  argued  that  the  Founder  of  Chris- 
tianity would  Himself  have  disapproved  of  the  meas- 
ure, he  writes  as  follows  : 

"  I  believe  that,  provided  neither  force  nor  fraud  were 
used,  Christ  would  assuredly  approve  of  the  introduction 
of  the  Bible.  We  believe  that  the  Bible  is  true,  that  it  is 
the  only  means  of  salvation.     Surely  we  should  lend  our 


THE  CHRISTIAN  STATESMAN  235 

influence  in  making  it  known  to  our  subjects.  ...  As 
a  matter  of  policy,  I  advocate  the  introduction  of  the  Bible 
quite  as  much  as  a  matter  of  duty.  I  believe  that,  pro- 
vided we  do  it  wisely  and  judiciously,  the  people  will  grad- 
ually read  that  book.  I  have  reason  to  suppose  this  be- 
cause the  missionaries  are  successful.  On  the  other  hand, 
nothing  will  more  surely  conduce  to  the  strength  of  our 
power  in  India  than  the  spread  of  Christianity.  You  seem 
to  think  that  we  violate  the  principles  of  toleration  by  at- 
tempting to  convert  the  people.  I  think  you  might  just  as 
well  assume  that  we  violate  such  principles  by  preferring 
in  a  public  office  a  respectable  man  to  a  reprobate,  a  wise 
man  to  a  fool,  and  an  industrious  man  to  a  lazy  one.  The 
whole  question  seems  to  me  to  resolve  itself  into  what  is  the 
just  interpretation  of  the  term  toleration.  I  consider  that 
it  means  'forbearance.*  That  is  to  say,  that  we  are  to 
bear  with  and  not  to  persecute  mankind  for  their  religious 
opinions.  But  this  cannot  mean  that  we  should  not  strive 
by  gentle  means  to  lead  those  in  the  right  way  whom  we 
see  to  be  going  wrong." 

In  answer  to  the  strong  objection  of  Arnold,  Law- 
rence wrote  a  despatch  to  the  Governor-General, 
curiously  omitted  from  his  biography,  which  is  de- 
ficient in  its  knowledge  of  Lawrence's  religious  life 
and  activity.     In  this  despatch  he  said  : 

"Our  government  is,  as  all  other  governments  are,  or 
ought  to  be,  established  for  the  good  of  the  people.  But 
while  with  other  governments  the  popular  will  is  generally 
the  criterion  of  the  public  good,  such  is  not  always  the  case 
with  us  in  India.  If,  by  being  trustees  for  the  people,  we 
are  supposed  to  be  bound  invariably  by  the  will  of  the 


236  JOHN   LAWRENCE 

people,  then  we  are  not,  the  chief  commissioner  thinks, 
trustees  in  that  sense.  We  have  not  been  elected  or  placed 
in  power  by  the  people,  but  we  are  here  through  our  moral 
superiority,  by  the  force  of  circumstances,  by  the  will  of 
Providence.  This  alone  constitutes  our  charter  to  govern 
India. 

"  In  doing  the  best  we  can  for  the  people,  we  are  bound 
by  our  conscience,  and  not  by  theirs.  Believing  that  the 
study  of  the  Bible  is  fraught  with  the  highest  blessings,  we, 
of  course,  do  desire  to  communicate  those  blessings  to  them 
if  we  can.  We  desire  this  not  only  as  individuals,  but  as 
a  government ;  for  Christianity  does  truly  go  hand  in  hand 
with  all  those  subjects  for  which  British  rule  exists  in  India. 
But  this  can  only  be  effected  by  moral  influences  volun- 
tarily received.  Anything  like  *  proselytism '  or  '  quiet 
persecution '  of  any  kind,  or  the  application  of  secular 
motives,  direct  or  indirect,  is,  in  the  first  place,  absolutely 
forbidden  by  the  very  religion  we  profess,  and,  in  the  sec- 
ond place,  would  be  worse  than  useless  for  the  object  in 
view. 

"Therefore,  we  have  nothing  to  do  with  such  means. 
Nor  do  we,  as  a  government,  undertake  to  found  and 
maintain  Christian  missions,  because  the  thing  can  be  done 
better  by  private  effort,  and  because  our  doing  so  might 
tend  to  introduce  those  secular  means  for  propagation  of 
Christianity  which  we  wish  to  avoid.  But,  as  we  have 
schools,  their  arises  a  fair  opportunity  of  offering  the  Bible 
to  those  who  may  choose  to  receive  it ;  and,  in  the  chief 
commissioner's  opinion,  it  is  just,  politic,  and  right  that  we 
should  avail  ourselves  of  that  opportunity.  Such,  briefly 
stated,  is  the  real  argument  for  the  formation  of  Bible 
classes  in  government  schools. 

**  To  say  that  we  have  no  right  to  offer  Christian  teach- 


THE   CHRISTIAN   STATESMAN  237 

ing  to  government  schools  because  we  do  not  allow  the 
native  religions  to  be  taught  there,  is  to  naisapprehend  the 
fundamental  relation  that  in  this  country  subsists  between 
the  government  and  the  people.  We  are  to  do  the  best  we 
can  for  them,  according  to  our  lights ;  and  they  are  to 
obey  us.  Mr.  Arnold  writes  :  *  What  answer  am  I  to  give 
to  Hindus  and  Mohammedans  if  they  say  that,  after  hav- 
ing excluded  their  religions,  I  have  introduced  my  own? 
Shall  I  say  that  I  am  master,  that  I  am  the  officer  of  a 
conquering  government,  and  will  do  as  I  please  ?  '  That 
answer  would  indeed  be  arbitrary.  The  proper  answer 
would  be  thus  :  '  We  offer  you  the  Bible  in  our  government 
schools  because  we  believe  it  to  be  for  your  inestimable 
good,  if  you  choose  to  listen  to  it.  We  do  not  wish  you 
to  study  it  unless  you  do  so  voluntarily.  But  you  cannot 
expect  us  to  help  in  teaching  your  religion,  which  we  do 
not  believe  to  be  true.    That  you  can  do  for  yourselves.'  "  ^ 

Lawrence  never  abandoned  this  view.  Let  those 
who  oppose  it  be  sure  that  they  can  speak  with  Law- 
rence's authority,  his  knowledge  of  the  people  and 
his  honest  Christian  character.  It  is  a  very  different 
attitude  of  mind  from  that  of  General  Kitchener 
when  he  forbade  missionary  work  in  the  Soudan,  and 
proposed  that  the  Gordon  Memorial  College  should 
be  absolutely  non-Christian.  Well  might  the  House 
of  Laymen  of  the  province  of  Canterbury  reply  to 
such  proposals  : 

"  That  this  House,  while  welcoming  the  noble  effort  now 
making  to  elevate  and  instruct  the  people  of  the  Soudan 
and  Upper  Egypt  through  the  means  of  the  Gordon  Col- 

*  "History  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society,"  Vol.  II,  p.  250 f. 


238  JOHN   LAWRENCE 

lege  at  Khartoum,  is  nevertheless  of  opinion  that  no  effort 
to  perpetuate  the  memory  of  General  Gordon  can  be  con- 
sidered adequate  which  does  not  include  the  direct  procla- 
mation of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  to  all  the  races  in- 
habiting the  upper  basin  of  the  Nile,  which  has  recently 
been  brought  under  the  control  of  England.  They  would 
express  their  earnest  hope  that  at  the  earliest  moment  con- 
sistent with  public  safety  the  government  of  the  Soudan 
will  remove  the  restrictions  at  present  existing  upon  the 
entrance  of  missionaries  to  Khartoum." 

In  the  course  of  the  debate  over  this  proposal,  the 
duty  of  the  Church  of  Christ  to  preach  the  Gospel  to 
every  creature,  including  Mohammedans,  was  in- 
sisted on  by  Lord  Cranborne,  eldest  son  of  Lord 
Salisbury,  "with  the  eloquence  of  genuine  conviction. 
And  Sir  Eichard  Temple,  one  of  the  last  representa- 
tives of  the  Punjab  school  of  Christian  officers  and 
statesmen,  expressed  his  surprise  that  any  British 
ruler  should  put  any  obstacle  in  the  way  of  a  Chris- 
tian mission.  **I  cannot  understand  it,"  he  said. 
The  policy  of  Lawrence  and  Edwardes  and  Mont- 
gomery, who  so  soon  as  cities  like  Peshawar  and 
Lucknow  were  occupied,  Mohammedan  cities  then  as 
dangerous  as  Khartoum  now,  encouraged  missionaries 
to  come  in  and  preach  openly  to  the  Moslem  popula- 
tion, was  a  nobler  and  higher  policy  than  that  now 
enunciated.  But  it  needs  a  man  of  rare  faith  and 
Christian  experience  to  adopt  such  a  policy  and  act 
upon  it  fearlessly ;  and  judging  from  the  lower 
standpoint  of  the  average  Christianity  of  England, 
the  caution  of  Lord  Kitchener  in  present  circum- 
stances cannot  be  pronounced  unreasonable.     Never- 


THE   CHRISTIAN   STATESMAN  239 

theless,  Herbert  Edwardes'  never-to-be-forgotten 
words  remain  supremely  true :  * '  Above  all,  we  may 
be  quite  sure  that  we  are  much  safer  if  we  do  our  duty 
(to  proclaim  Christ  as  the  Saviour)  than  if  we  neglect  it ; 
and  that  He  who  has  brought  us  here,  with  His  own  right 
arm,  will  shield  and  bless  us,  if,  in  simple  reliance  upon 
Him,  we  try  to  do  His  wilV  That  also  was  John 
Lawrence's  view. 

3.  It  remains,  accordingly,  to  say  j  ust  a  word  upon 
his  attitude  and  relation  to  missions.  In  this  matter, 
as  in  his  Christian  character,  he  undoubtedly  learned 
and  grew  with  time.  The  first  reference  to  mission- 
ary work  in  his  biography  occurs  during  his  stay  at 
Etawa. 

"  They  (the  people)  had  often  heard  me  laugh  at  dif- 
ferent absurdities  of  their  religion,  on  which  occasions  I 
had  reasoned  with  them,  but  in  vain.  'No,  no,'  they 
said  ;  *  you  English  are  very  wise,  we  will  allow,  but  you 
do  not  understand  our  religion.'  In  fact,  as  far  as  my  ex- 
perience goes,  time  and  labour  are  utterly  lost  in  such  dis- 
cussions. The  only  way  that  will  ever  bring  the  natives 
to  truer  and  more  enlightened  ideas  is  the  gradual  prog- 
ress of  infant  education.  The  attempts  to  change  the 
faith  of  the  adult  population  have  hitherto  failed,  and  will, 
I  am  afraid,  continue  to  fail." 

On  his  first  furlough,  Caroline  Fox  reports  in  her 
diary  that  in  a  talk  about  India, 

"Lawrence  spoke  of  the  stationary  kind  of  progress 
which  Christianity  was  making  amongst  them.  When  a 
native  embraces  this  new  creed,   he  retains  his  old  in- 


240  JOHN   LAWRENCE 

veterate  prejudices  and  superadds  only  the  liberty  of  the 
new  faith.  This  Lawrence  has  repeatedly  proved,  so  much 
SO  that  he  would  on  no  account  take  one  of  these  converts 
into  his  service.  All  his  hope  is  in  the  education  of  the 
children,  who  are  bright  and  intelligent.  The  Indians 
will,  from  politeness,  believe  all  you  tell  them,  and  if  you 
speak  of  any  of  Christ's  miracles,  they  make  no  difficulty, 
but  directly  detail  one  more  marvellous  of  which  Mo- 
hammed was  the  author,  and  expect  your  civility  of 
credence  to  keep  pace  with  theirs.  If  you  try  to  convince 
them  of  any  absurdities  or  inconsistencies  in  the  Koran, 
they  stop  you  with,  '  Do  you  think  that  such  an  one  as  I 
should  presume  to  understand  it?'  " 

But  in  later  years  he  had  grown  far  beyond  this 
superficial  view.  At  the  Lahore  Durbar  the  one 
prince  who  received  the  order  of  the  Star  of  India  was 
a  Christian,  the  Eajah  of  Kaparthala.  Lawrence  ex- 
onerated missionaries  from  any  blame  for  the  Mutiny, 
in  reply  to  arguments  which  preceded  by  half  a 
century  the  arguments  which  laid  the  Boxer  uprising 
at  the  door  of  missionaries.  He  always  spoke  of  mis- 
sionaries with  respect.  When  he  was  Viceroy  he 
invited  a  Moravian  missionary  to  come  and  visit  him 
at  Simla.  ''  You  have  given  us  life  and  health,"  the 
man  said  as  he  went  away  loaded  with  presents. 
Lawrence  was  not  a  neutral  in  any  sense.  He  be- 
lieved in  toleration  not  neutrality  on  the  part  of  the 
government,  and  he  believed  in  earnest  aggression 
on  the  part  of  the  Churches.  Wlien  he  returned  to 
England  he  became  a  member  of  the  Committee  of 
the  Church  Missionary  Society,  and  at  a  meeting  of 
the  "Wesleyau  Missionary  Society  he  declared  : 


THE   CHRISTIAN   STATESiMAN  24I 

"I  believe,  notwithstanding  all  that  the  English  people 
have  done  to  benefit  that  country,  the  missionaries  have 
done  more  than  all  other  agencies  combined.  They  have 
had  arduous  and  up-hill  work,  often  receiving  no  en- 
couragement, and  sometimes  a  great  deal  of  discourage- 
ment from  their  own  countrymen,  and  have  had  to  bear 
the  taunts  and  obloquy  of  those  who  despised  and  disliked 
their  preaching ;  but  such  has  been  the  effect  of  their 
earnest  zeal,  untiring  devotion,  and  of  the  excellent  ex- 
ample which  they  have,  I  may  say,  universally  shown  to 
the  people,  that  I  have  no  doubt  whatever  that,  in  spite  of 
the  great  masses  of  the  people  being  intensely  opposed  to 
their  doctrine,  they  are,  as  a  body,  remarkably  popular  in 
the  country.  ...  It  seems  to  me  that,  year  by  year 
and  cycle  by  cycle,  the  influence  of  these  missionaries 
must  increase,  and  that,  in  God's  good-will,  the  time  may 
be  expected  to  come  when  large  masses  of  the  people, 
having  lost  all  faith  in  their  own,  and  feeling  the  want  of 
a  religion  which  is  pure  and  true  and  holy,  will  be  con- 
verted and  profess  the  Christian  religion,  and  having  pro- 
fessed it,  live  in  accordance  with  its  precepts.  ...  I 
have  a  great  reverence  and  regard  for  them  (the  mission- 
aries) both  personally,  and  for  the  sake  of  the  great  cause 
in  which  they  are  engaged  ;  and  I  feel  it  to  be  a  pleasure 
and  a  privilege  to  do  anything  I  can  in  the  last  years  of 
my  life  to  further  the  great  work  for  which  they  have  done 
so  much." 

And  Lawrence  saw  nothing  \VTong  in  such  a  posi- 
tion. His  firm  conviction  was  that  the  men  best 
served  Christian  governments  who  were  most  Chris- 
tian in  their  own  lives,  and  who  most  unfalteringly 
supported  the  religion  in  which  they  and  their  fa- 


242  JOHN   LAWRENCE 

thers  believed,  and  the  event  sliowed  that  he  was 
right.  Lord  Northbrook  once  emphatically  ex- 
pressed his  opinion  that  the  natives  of  India  respect 
an  Englishman  who  is  not  ashamed  of  his  religion, 
and  have  no  fear  of  his  infringing  the  principles  of 
religious  equality 

"  I  believe  that  they  do  not  honour  a  man  the  less,  or 
love  him  the  less,  because  they  see  that  he  is  in  earnest  in 
his  own  religious  convictions.  If  proof  were  wanted  of 
this,  it  would  be  sufficient  to  recall  to  your  recollection 
that  some  of  the  noblest  deeds  that  had  been  done  in 
British  India  had  been  done  not  only  by  earnest  Christian 
men  who  never  for  a  moment  concealed  their  zeal  in  favour 
of  the  spread  of  Christianity.  It  is  only  necessary  to 
mention  the  names  of  Herbert  Edwardes  and  Lord  Law- 
rence to  prove  that  what  I  have  said  is  true.  I  will  add 
one  thing  more.  Among  those  whom  I  have  known  in 
high  office  in  India  there  are  none  who  have  so  conciliated 
the  respect  and  affection  of  the  people  of  India  as  those 
very  men  who  have  never  concealed  their  desire  to  extend 
the  Christian  religion.  I  will  mention  Sir  Donald  McLeod, 
Lieutenant-Governor  of  the  Punjab,  Sir  William  Muir, 
who  is  now  present,  and  my  friend  Sir  Richard  Temple, 
now  Governor  of  Bombay,  and  one  of  the  men  who  was 
foremost  on  all  occasions  to  join  in  everything  which  he 
considered  to  be  of  advantage  to  the  welfare  of  the 
Church  of  England,  and  the  spread  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion in  India."  ^ 

And  then  he  pronounced  a  hearty  eulogy  on  the  mis- 
sionaries. ''They  are  worthy,"  he  said,  "of  all 
support,  encouragement,  and  admiration." 

*  "History  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society,"  Vol.  Ill,  p.  70. 


THE   CHRISTIAN   STATESMAN  243 

"When  will  the  day  come  that  we  may  hope  to  have 
such  men  representing  our  nation  abroad  and  their 
spirit  ruling  our  public  life  ?  Are  we  sure  that  we  our- 
selves are  such  men,  and  that  our  religious  profes- 
sion and  Christian  service  rest  upon  as  great  a  reality 
of  faith  and  character  as  all  men  felt  in  the  warm 
heart  and  the  granite  will  of  John,  first  Lord  Law- 
rence of  the  Punjab? 


LECTURE  VI 

CHARLES  GEORGE  GORDON,  THE 
CHRISTIAN  KNIGHT  ERRANT  AND 
THE  POWER  OF  PURE  DEVOTION 


LECTURE  VI 

CHARLES  GEORGEGORDON,THE  CHRIS- 
TIAN KNIGHT  ERRANT  AND  THE 
POWER  OF  PURE  DEVOTION 

FOUR  of  the  five  men  whom  we  have  thus  far 
considered  were  professionally  related  to  the 
missionary  cause.  The  other  one  of  the  five 
and  the  one  whom  we  are  to  consider  now  belonged 
to  a  class  of  men  who  have  done  as  much  as  many 
missionaries  have  been  able  to  do,  soldiers,  adminis- 
trators and  diplomatists,  who  have  themselves  fol- 
lowed Christ,  who  have  done  their  work  in  His 
Spirit  and  lived  their  lives  by  His  principles,  and 
have  advanced  the  mission  cause  through  their  open 
sympathy  with  its  aims  and  their  cordial  support  of 
its  enterprises,  and  not  less  through  their  recognition 
of  the  missionary  ideal  as  the  right  ideal  in  all  con- 
tact, political  and  commercial  as  well  as  religious, 
between  the  advanced  and  the  backward  peoples. 
A  sad  proportion  of  the  secular  representatives  of 
the  West  have  not  belonged  to  this  class.  A  steady 
stream  of  merchants  and  soldiers  and  political  agents 
has  moved  across  Asia  and  Africa  and  South  America, 
and  the  men  in  it  who  have  lived  the  aggressive 
Christian  life,  and  sought  to  advance  the  Christian 
cause  have  been  the  honourable  minority. 
In  this  minority,  however,  have  been  the  greatest 
247 


248      CHARLES  GEORGE  GORDON 

men  of  their  time,  and  they  have  been  great  by  their 
Christian  character  and  Christian  purpose  not  less 
than  by  their  governing  genius,  their  military  power 
or  their  diplomatic  skill.  I  have  spoken  of  one  of 
these  and  am  now  to  speak  of  another,  Charles 
George  Gordon,  the  most  heroic  character  of  his  day. 
''There  was  no  figure  during  our  generation,"  said 
Lord  Salisbury,  "to  which  the  popular  feeling  and 
sympathy  were  so  attached."  "  The  most  restless 
spirit  of  the  nineteenth  century,"  Sir  William  Butler 
calls  him, — "the  bravest,  the  purest  and  the  most 
truthful  Englishman  of  his  time."  "The  marvel- 
lous career  is  now  ended,"  said  the  London  Times,  on 
the  news  of  his  death.  "The  life  is  over.  .  .  . 
That  life  has  done  much  for  this  generation.  It  has 
served  conspicuously  to  remind  us  that  the  age  of 
chivalry  is  not  dead ;  that  chivalry  in  the  highest 
sense  is  rare,  indeed,  but  that  its  influence  is  as  great 
and  as  far  reaching  as  of  old.  .  .  .  If  we  cannot 
but  deeply  mourn  the  untimely  end  of  so  much  genius 
and  so  much  devotion,  it  is  some  consolation  to  feel 
that  Gordon's  heroic  death  has  lifted  him  to  a  height 
of  glory  which  renders  him  the  most  conspicuous 
Englishman  of  our  time."  He  and  Charles  Darwin, 
Mr.  Huxley  said,  were  the  two  greatest  men  he  had 
ever  met.  There  was  about  him  an  unselfishness  that 
was  more  than  human,  and  a  faith  lived  in  him 
which  even  Huxley  wished  he  might  share.  And 
above  all  these  tributes  and  explaining  them,  he  was, 
Mr.  Lawrence  Olyphaut  wrote  of  him  to  his  sister, 
"the  most  Christlike  man  I  ever  knew." 

We  are  more  concerned  in  these  studies  with  the 
character  and  principles  of  men  than  with  the  in- 


THE   CHRISTIAN   KNIGHT   ERRANT        249 

cidents  of  their  life,  but  it  is  the  latter  which  give 
us  our  understanding  of  the  former,  and  Gordon's 
life  was  a  knight  errant' s  if  ever  a  knight  errant 
lived. 

He  was  born  at  Woolwich,  January  28,  1833.  For 
a  hundred  and  fifty  years  his  fathers  had  been  fight- 
ing men.  His  Highlander  great  grandfather  had 
been  taken  prisoner  at  Prestonpans,  and  his  military 
soul,  as  well  as  his  independent  will,  came  to  him  out 
of  his  father's  loins,  who  "spent  a  long  life  in  the 
service,  and  like  his  son,  was  less  fitted  to  obey  than 
to  command.  More  than  once,  well  as  he  knew  the 
value  of  discipline,  it  was  his  to  resist  his  superiors, 
and  to  protest  against  dictates  which  he  would  hold 
to  be  superfluous  and  unjust."  *  His  mother  was  an 
Euderby,  whose  father,  Samuel  Enderby,  owned 
whaling  ships  which  wandered  everywhere  over  the 
world.  Their  owner' s  name  is  left  on  remote  lands, 
and  two  of  them  were  the  vessels  from  which  the  tea 
was  thrown  overboard  in  Boston  Harbour.  The  lad 
came  naturally  by  the  disposition  that  made  him  easy 
in  any  land.  He  never  needed  a  long  preparation 
to  move. 

He  was  educated  at  Taunton  and  at  the  Eoyal 
Military  Academy  at  Woolwich.  He  had  a  temper 
and  a  free  mind  then  as  always.  "Once  during  his 
cadetship  at  the  academy  he  was  rebuked  for  incom- 
petence, and  told  that  he  would  never  make  an 
officer ;  whereupon  he  tore  the  epaulets  from  his 
shoulders  and  flung  them  at  his  superior's  feet." 
Kot  a  nice  story  by  itself.  And  his  father  knew  the 
explosives  wrapped  up  in  the  boy.  "While  he  is 
'Hake,  "The  Story  of  Chinese  Gordon,"  p.  7. 


250  CHARLES   GEORGE   GORDON 

in  the  academy,"  he  said,  '*!  feel  I  am  like  one 
sitting  on  a  powder  barrel."  "Then  after  "Wool- 
wich," says  General  Butler,  "  came  Chatham,  where 
the  young  officer  was  still  further  to  learn  the  lessons 
of  the  Master  of  the  Art  of  Defense,  so  great  in  greater 
things  than  siege  or  safe-keeping  of  cities.  Perhaps 
in  the  library  of  the  barracks  or  on  the  old  lines  of 
Brompton  the  young  sapper  read  the  lesson  that 
Vauban  has  left  in  his  letter  to  Louvois — a  lesson  of 
deeper  meaning  in  the  safe-keeping  of  the  citadel  of 
self  than  any  of  his  famous  'systems.'  'For  I  dare 
plainly  to  tell  you,'  wrote  the  veteran  (marshal  of 
France  at  last  after  his  fifty- three  sieges)  to  the  all- 
powerful  minister,  'that  in  a  question  of  strictest 
honesty  and  sincere  fidelity  I  fear  neither  the  king, 
nor  you,  nor  all  the  human  race  together.  Fortune 
had  me  born  the  poorest  gentleman  in  France,  but  in 
requital  she  honoured  me  with  an  honest  heart,  so 
free  from  all  sorts  of  swindles  that  it  cannot  bear 
even  the  thought  of  them  without  a  shudder.'  "  ^ 

In  1852  he  got  his  commission  as  a  second  lieuten- 
ant of  engineers.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  Crimean 
War  he  was  in  garrison  at  Pembroke  Dock  employed 
in  drawing  plans  for  the  forts  and  defenses  of  the 
haven,  but  at  the  end  of  1854  he  was  ordered  to 
Sebastopol,  and  arrived  at  Balaklava  on  New  Year's 
Day,  1855.  This  was  his  first  schooling  in  war,  but 
he  had  already  achieved  such  victory  over  himself, 
as  Milton  said  of  Cromwell,  that  he  was  a  practiced 
warrior  before  ever  he  came  to  the  battle-field.  ' '  One 
day  in  going  the  round  of  the  trenches,  he  heard  a 
corporal  and  a  sapper  of  engineers  in  violent  alterca- 
'  Sir  William  Butler,  "  Gordon,"  p.  14. 


THE  CHRISTIAN   KNIGHT   ERRANT        25 1 

tion.  He  stopped  to  ask  what  was  the  matter,  when 
he  was  told  that  the  men  were  engaged  placing  some 
fresh  gabions  in  the  battery,  and  that  the  corporal 
had  ordered  the  sapper  to  stand  up  on  the  parapet, 
where  he  was  exposed  to  the  enemy's  fire,  while  the 
former,  in  the  fnll  shelter  of  the  battery,  handed  the 
baskets  up  to  him.  Gordon  at  once  jumped  up  to 
the  parapet,  ordering  the  corporal  to  join  him,  while 
the  sapper  handed  them  the  gabions.  When  the 
work  was  done,  and  done  under  the  fire  of  the  watch- 
ful Eussian  gunners,  Gordon  turned  to  the  corporal 
and  said,  '  Never  order  a  man  to  do  anything  you  are 
afraid  to  do  yourself.'  "  '  He  already  had  become  a 
gravely  religious  man  who  did  not  believe  in  chance, 
and  his  prescience  as  well  as  his  utter  fearlessness 
was  discerned.  *'He  attracted  the  notice  of  his 
superiors,"  said  Colonel  Chesney,  ''not  merely  by 
his  energy  and  activity,  but  by  a  special  aptitude  for 
war  ;  developing  itself,  amid  the  trench -work  before 
Sebastopol,  in  a  personal  knowledge  of  the  enemy's 
movements,  such  as  no  other  officer  attained.  We 
used  to  send  him  to  find  out  what  new  move  the 
Eussians  were  making." 

After  the  Crimean  War  he  was  occupied  for  two 
years  on  boundary  commissions  in  Bessarabia  and 
Armenia  and  the  Caucasus.  In  1859  he  was  stationed 
at  Chatham  as  Field  Work  Instructor  and  Adjutant, 
and  in  1860  was  sent  to  North  China,  to  join  the 
British  force  then  engaged  with  the  French  in  war 
with  China.  He  was  present  at  the  wanton  destruc- 
tion of  the  Summer  Palace  upon  the  capture  of 
Peking.  Those  who  speak  of  missionary  loot  in 
*  Macaulay,  "Gordoo  Anecdotes,"  p.  29f. 


252  CHARLES   GEORGE  GORDON 

connection  with  the  capture  of  Peking  in  1900,  and 
who  think  the  missionary  disregardful  of  the  tradi- 
tions and  treasures  of  the  Asiatic  people,  should  read 
Gordon's  description  of  this  vandalism. 

This  poor  war  over,  Gordon  was  occupied  at 
Shanghai  in  a  military  survey  of  the  surrounding 
country,  and  from  that  work  was  loaned  by  the 
British  government  to  China  to  take  command  of 
the  " Ever- victorious  Army,"  of  foreign  adventurers 
and  Chinese,  which  had  been  organized  by  an 
American  named  Ward  who  had  been  killed,  and 
indeed  to  assume  direction  of  the  independent 
Chinese  force  endeavouring  to  suppress  the  Taiping 
Rebellion.  The  biographies  of  Gordon  describe  the 
Taipings  in  the  blackest  colours,  and  account  for  the 
monster  movement  by  the  most  fantastic  explana- 
tions, unless,  like  Sir  W.  Butler,  they  pass  the  mat- 
ter over  by  stating,  which  is  not  the  fact,  that  its 
origin  ''lies  still  in  oblivion."  There  is  wide  dif- 
ference of  opinion  at  to  whether  it  would  have  been 
desirable  to  have  the  Taipings  overthrow  the  present 
Manchu  dynasty.  The  general  j  udgment  of  students 
is  against  the  Taipings.  Gordon,  who  had  no  per- 
sonal knowledge  of  their  leaders  and  no  acquaintance 
with  China,  its  history  and  institutions,  and  none  but 
the  Shanghai  highly  interested  view  of  the  Taipings 
as  disturbers  of  commerce,  and  who  saw  that  the  re- 
bellion had  dragged  on  for  years,  and  that  it  might 
go  on  for  years  to  come,  felt  that  he  was  justified  in 
endeavouring  to  suppress  the  disorder  and  reestablish 
the  authority  of  the  central  government.  As  he  ac- 
cepted the  position  offered  to  him,  he  wrote  home, 
*'I  have  taken  the  step  in  consideration.     I  think 


THE   CHRISTIAN   KNIGHT  ERRANT        253 

that  any  one  who  contributes  to  putting  down  this 
rebellion  fulfills  a  humane  task,  and  I  also  think 
tends  a  great  deal  to  open  China  to  civilization." 
Perhaps  if  Gordon  had  known  Hung  Siu-tsuen  and 
the  rebellion  in  its  early  years,  and  had  seen  the 
better  elements  in  its  leaders  and  its  principles,  his 
knight  errant  spirit  might  have  led  him  to  feel  that 
he  fulfilled  a  humane  task  who  let  the  movement 
alone,  or  who  sought  to  correct  and  direct  rather  than 
to  suppress  it.  Griffith-John,  who  knew  the  move- 
ment well,  told  me  once  that  he  deemed  this  the  great 
error  of  Gordon's  career. 

But  he  acted  as  always  on  the  impulse  of  his  con- 
science, and  the  four  years  which  he  spent  in  China 
in  the  repression  of  the  rebellion  constitute  one  of  the 
most  wonderful  stories  of  military  genius,  personal 
power  and  high-minded  unselfishness  and  courage  of 
which  the  world  knows.  In  summing  up  the  lessons 
of  his  service  in  China,  Sir  William  Butler  says  : 

"  Indomitable  resolution,  inexhaustible  resource,  sleep- 
less activity,  were  his  master  qualities.  The  distrust  of 
English  leadership,  which  previous  experience  or  prejudice 
had  engendered  in  the  minds  of  his  officers  and  men,  soon 
gave  place  to  complete  confidence,  and,  no  matter  how 
difficult  the  labour  or  how  stubborn  the  resistance,  the  be- 
lief in  the  final  triumph  of  the  undertaking  which  their 
leader  had  conceived  never  wavered.  The  indirect  ad- 
vantages to  China  which  the  presence  of  Gordon  as  a 
leader  gave  were  scarcely  less  important  to  the  cause  of 
order.  The  scandal  of  the  sale  of  English  munitions  of 
war  to  the  rebels  received  a  check,  and  although  it  would 
have  been  too  much  to  expect  that  a  commercial  activity 


254  CHARLES   GEORGE   GORDON 

which  had  for  its  chief  commodity  the  sale  of  a  slow-con- 
suming poison  would  have  drawn  the  line  of  conscience 
strictly  at  any  more  sudden  form  of  death,  still  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  the  open  supply  of  the  rebels  with  arms 
and  ammunition  became,  in  the  latter  stage  of  the  Taiping 
war,  at  least  an  unfashionable  form  of  commerce.  But 
the  lesson  of  this  brilliant  episode  was  neither  to  China  nor 
to  Gordon,  it  was  to  us.  China  might  well  be  trusted  to 
go  on  its  way  for  two  thousand  years.  Gordon  knew  him- 
self and  his  qualities  before  he  ever  pointed  with  bamboo 
cane  the  road  of  victory  to  his  army,  but  to  us  the  revela- 
tion was  given  that  there  was  among  us  a  man  gifted  with 
all  the  faculties  of  true  kingship,  a  leader  of  men  and  a 
master,  a  veritable  '  spear,'  sharp  and  swift  and  self- wield- 
ing, and  with  a  flash  in  its  steel  that  could  kindle  the 
light  of  battle  in  ten  thousand  duller  weapons.  It  was  but 
a  few  years  since,  for  the  want  of  such  a  leader,  that  we 
had  lost  everything  but  honour  on  the  plateau  above  Seb- 
astopol,  and  now,  having  found  this  captain,  it  was  for  us 
to  guard  him  with  safe-keeping,  to  hold  him  for  the  evil 
day  as  the  most  precious  of  our  treasures.  Assuredly  it 
was  from  no  plethora  of  such  possession  that  we  could 
afford  to  waste  or  spend  him  in  distant  outside  enterprise." 

Froin  China  he  returned  to  England,  and  from  1865 
to  1871  was  engaged  at  Gravesend  in  the  direction  of 
works  connected  with  the  defense  of  the  Thames.  It 
was  a  time  of  panic  in  England,  worked  up  by  the 
imaginary  fear  of  French  invasion.  It  was  a  time 
also  of  transition  in  military  science,  and  defenses  of 
one  year  were  antiquated  the  next.  Immense  sums  of 
money  were  being  spent  and  wasted  and  Gordon 
chafed  under  it  bitterly.     The  six  years  at  Gravesend 


THE   CHRISTIAN   KNIGHT   ERRANT        255 

were,  however,  as  he  said,  among  the  happiest  of  his 
life. 


"  To  the  world,  his  life  at  Gravesend,"  says  Mr.  Hake, 
one  of  his  biographers,  "  was  a  life  of  self- suppression  and 
self-denial ;  to  himself  it  was  one  of  happiness  and  pure 
peace.  He  lived  wholly  for  others.  His  house  was 
school  and  hospital  and  almshouse  in  turn,  and  was  more 
like  the  abode  of  a  missionary  than  of  a  colonel  of  engi- 
neers. .  .  .  He  always  took  a  great  delight  in  chil- 
dren, but  especially  in  boys  employed  on  the  river  or  the 
sea.  Many  he  rescued  from  the  gutter  j  cleansed  them 
and  clothed  them,  and  kept  them  for  weeks  in  his  home. 
For  their  benefit  he  established  evening  classes,  over  which 
he  himself  presided,  reading  to  and  teaching  the  lads  with 
as  much  ardour  as  if  he  were  leading  them  to  victory. 
He  called  them  his  '  kings,'  and  for  many  of  them  he  got 
berths  on  board  ship.  One  day  a  friend  asked  him  why 
there  were  so  many  pins  stuck  into  the  map  of  the 
world  over  his  mantelpiece;  he  was  told  that  they 
marked  and  followed  the  course  of  the  boys  on  their  voy- 
ages— that  they  were  moved  from  point  to  point  as  his 
youngsters  advanced,  and  that  he  prayed  for  them  as  they 
went,  day  by  day." 


"His  benevolence  embraced  all,"  writes  one  who  saw 
much  of  him  at  this  time.  "Misery  was  quite  sufficient 
claim  for  him. 

"  We  used  to  say  he  had  no  self — in  that  following  his 
Divine  Master.  He  would  never  talk  of  himself  and  his 
doings.  Therefore  his  life  never  can  and  never  will  be 
written. 


256  CHARLES   GEORGE   GORDON 

"  It  was  in  these  years  that  the  first  book  about  him 
came  out.  He  allowed  the  author  to  come  and  stay  at 
Fort  House,  and  gave  him  every  facility  towards  bringing 
out  his  book  (all  the  particulars  about  the  Taiping  Rebel- 
lion) even  to  lending  him  his  diary.  Then,  from  some- 
thing that  was  said,  he  discovered  that  personal  acts  of  his 
own  (bravery,  possibly)  were  described,  and  he  asked  to 
see  what  had  been  written.  Then  he  tore  out  page  after 
page — the  parts  about  himself — to  the  poor  author's 
chagrin,  who  told  him  he  had  spoiled  his  book.  I  tried 
to  get  at  the  bottom  of  this  feeling  of  his,  telling  him  he 
might  be  justly  proud  of  these  things  ;  but  was  answered 
that  no  man  has  a  right  to  be  proud  of  anything,  inas- 
much as  he  has  no  native  good  in  him — he  has  received 
it  all." 

It  would  be  easy  to  gather  many  anecdotes  about 
these  days.  The  great  Christian  was  unfolding  his 
own  rare  and  original  reality  here  and  preparing,  not 
for  greater,  but  for  more  conspicuous  service.  In- 
deed, it  is  here  really  that  his  wonderful  letters  to 
his  sister  begin ;  not  one  is  presented  from  the 
Taiping  war  period  of  his  life.  He  himself  never 
was  deluded  by  confusion  as  to  small  and  great. 
"Napoleon,"  he  writes  to  his  sister,  ''  in  a  book  lent 
me  by  Watson,  says,  'The  smallest  trifles  produce 
the  greatest  results.'  "  Again  he  writes  to  her,  "  In 
'  Gold  Dust '  is  this  paragraph,  '  May  I  pass  through 
this  world  unnoticed.'  " 

From  the  unnoticed  years  at  Gravesend  he  went 
out  in  1871  as  the  English  member  of  the  Interna- 
tional Commission  for  regulating  the  navigation  of 
the  mouths  of  the  Danube.     On  this  service  he  met 


THE   CHRISTIAN   KNIGHT   ERRANT        257 

Nubar  Pasha,  the  ablest  of  the  ministers  of  the 
Khedive  Ismail  who  was  at  once  attracted  to  the  man 
and  secured  his  appointment  as  Governor  of  the 
Equatorial  Provinces  of  Egypt,  succeeding  Sir 
Samuel  Baker.  Gordon  accepted,  refusing  to  take 
more  than  one-fifth  the  salary  of  his  predecessor.  To 
his  office  as  Governor  of  the  Equatorial  Provinces  was 
added  later  the  charge  of  the  Soudan.  Here  Gor- 
don' s  career  was  more  wonderful  even  than  in  China 
and  the  magic  of  the  man's  personality  worked  like 
a  spell  over  the  turbulence  of  the  land. 

' '  His  rule  in  the  Soudan  was  glorious  to  himself, 
satisfactory  even  to  the  Khedive  and  gratifying  to 
Englishmen,  as  a  practical  demonstration  of  the  qual- 
ities which  they  must  wish  to  see  most  common 
among  their  countrymen.     .     .     . 

"  When  at  Khartoum  he  was  on  one  occasion  in- 
stalled with  a  royal  salute  and  an  address  was  pre- 
sented, and  in  return  he  was  expected  to  make  a 
speech.  His  speech  was  as  follows  :  '  With  the  help 
of  God,  I  will  hold  the  balance  level.'  The  people 
were  delighted,  for  a  level  balance  was  to  them  an 
unknown  boon.  And  he  held  it  level  all  through  his 
long  and  glorious  reign,  which  lasted,  with  one  small 
break,  from  February,  1874,  until  August,  1879." 

The  man's  great  work  during  the  governorship  was 
a  work  of  personal  inspiration,  of  the  taming  of  men 
by  love  and  trust  and  justice.  He  collided  with 
falsehood  and  selfishness  at  every  step  and  hated  at 
times  the  very  contact  with  civilization  because  it 
meant  fresh  warfare  between  his  principles  and  those 
of  schemers  and  self-seekers  and  conventionalists 
who  were  not  serving  a  living  God  and  His  world. 


258  CHARLES   GEORGE   GORDON 

Mr.  Hake  is  uot  too  enthusiastic  iu  hia  description 
of  Gordon's  work,  written  while  Gordon  was  living 
in  Palestine. 

"  The  work  he  had  begun  and  was  bent  on  finishing  was 
fraught  with  peculiar  perils.  It  demanded  a  tact,  an 
energy,  and  a  force  of  will  almost  superhuman.  He  had 
to  deal  not  only  with  worthless  and  often  mutinous  govern- 
ors of  provinces,  but  with  wild  and  desperate  tribesmen 
as  well ;  he  had  to  disband  6,000  Bashi-Bazouks,  who 
were  used  as  frontier  guards,  but  who  winked  at  slave- 
hunting  and  robbed  the  tribes  on  their  own  account ;  he 
had  to  subdue  and  bring  to  order  and  rule  the  vast  prov- 
ince of  the  Bahr  Gazelle,  but  now  beneath  the  sway  of  the 
great  slaver  Sebehr.  It  was  a  stupendous  task  :  to  give 
peace  to  a  country  quick  with  war ;  to  suppress  slavery 
among  a  people  to  whom  the  trade  in  human  flesh  was 
life  and  honour  and  fortune  ;  to  make  an  army  out  of  per- 
haps the  worst  material  ever  seen  ;  to  grow  a  flourishing 
trade  and  a  fair  revenue  in  the  wildest  anarchy  in  the 
world.  The  immensity  of  the  undertaking  ;  the  infinity 
of  details  involved  in  a  single  step  towards  the  end  ;  the 
countless  odds  to  be  faced ;  the  many  pests — the  deadly 
climate,  the  horrible  vermin,  the  ghastly  itch,  the  nightly 
and  daily  alternation  of  overpowering  heat  and  bitter  cold 
— to  be  endured  and  overcome  ;  the  environment  of  bestial 
savagery  and  ruthless  fanaticism — all  these  combine  to 
make  the  achievement  unique  in  human  history. 
Like  the  adventurer  in  Browning's  magnificent  allegory, 
he  had  everything  against  him,  and  he  was  utterly  alone, 
but  he  stood  for  God  and  the  right,  and  he  would  not 
flinch.  There  stood  the  tower  of  evil — the  grim  ruined 
land,  the  awful  presences,  the  hopeless  task,  the  anarchy 


THE  CHRISTIAN   KNIGHT   ERRANT        259 

of  wickedness  and  despair  and  wrath.     He  knew,  he  felt, 
he  recognized  it  all ;  and  yet — 

"  And  yet 
Dauntless  the  stag-horn  to  my  lips  I  set 
And  blew:    Childe  Roland  to  the  Dark  Tower  Cavie." 

Undismayed,  Gordon  did  his  work,  and  then  when 
he  felt  that  he  had  done  it  and  that  he  had  got  as  far 
as  the  opposition  of  the  world  with  which  he  was 
always  fighting  would  allow,  he  laid  it  down. 

In  1880  he  was  in  Ireland  and  there  his  restless, 
sympathetic,  penetrating  mind  devised  his  remedy 
for  the  Irish  problem ;  but  neither  his  remedy,  nor 
what  was  more  valuable,  the  man,  was  employed  on 
that  six  century  old  entanglement,  and  the  next  year 
receiving  no  appointment  in  his  own  profession  and 
chafing  at  being  unoccupied,  he  accepted  the  post  of 
private  secretary  to  Lord  Eipon,  the  new  Governor- 
General  of  India.  Before  he  reached  India  he  had 
resigned,  not  because  he  felt  it  was  a  humiliation  to 
descend  from  a  Governor-Generalship  to  be  a  private 
secretary,  but  because  he  realized  he  could  never 
stand  what  he  deemed  the  horrors  of  British  life  in 
India. 

Not  once,  but  many  times  in  his  life,  Gordon  made 
changes  like  this.  During  the  Taipiug  Kebellion  he 
once  resigned  his  position  in  justified  auger  and  dis- 
gust, but  reconsidered.  In  the  Soudan  he  resigned 
his  place  and  reconsidered  his  resignation.  And  now 
he  left  England  as  private  secretary  to  the  Indian 
Governor-General  and  resigned  in  Bombay.  This 
was  not  vacillation.  It  was  the  ingenuous  child 
nature  at  work  in  him.     It  was  response  to  the  sen- 


26o  CHARLES  GEORGE  GORDON 

sitive  discernment  of  duty  plus  that  moral  courage 
which,  whatever  he  says,  he  never  lacked.  He  was 
not  the  sort  who  feared  to  move,  to  change,  lest  he 
should  lose  his  bread  and  butter.  When  he  heard 
his  call  or  saw  his  gleam  he  rose  up  straightway  and 
followed.  To  those  people  whose  ethics  are  derived 
from  their  daily  bread  he  was  a  very  fanciful  man. 

The  next  three  years  Gordon  spent  in  China  advis- 
ing the  Chinese  government  not  to  go  to  war  with 
Eussia  and  what  to  do  with  its  armies  to  prepare  for 
war  ;  in  Mauritius,  where  he  went  because  a  fellow 
ofiicer  assigned  there  did  not  want  to  go ;  in  South 
Africa  where  he  seemed  utterly  impracticable  to  the 
Cape  Colony  officials  because  he  was  so  fantastically 
upright  and  honest  and  just  in  his  dealings  with  the 
Basutos,  and  in  the  Holy  Land  where  with  his  Bible 
in  his  hand  he  studied  the  holy  places  and  meditated 
upon  the  truth  of  God,  and  on  his  return  to  England 
he  was  asked  by  the  King  of  the  Belgians  to  go  to  the 
Congo  as  Governor  of  the  territory  occupied  by  the 
International  Association.  He  accepted  this  call  and 
went  to  Brussels  to  receive  final  instructions.  A 
friend  has  told  me  of  meeting  him  there  at  the  time, 
a  little,  quiet,  very  quick  and  living  man.  How 
different  the  history  of  the  Congo  Free  State  would 
have  been  if  he  had  gone,  but  he  was  called  back  to 
London  to  consider  the  proposition  that  he  should 
return  to  the  Soudan.  After  his  preceding  service 
there  Eaouf  Pasha  had  been  appointed  Governor  and 
the  old  abuses  had  returned.  Corruption  in  govern- 
ment, connivance  at  slavery,  incapacity  and  cruelty 
on  one  hand  and  the  Mahdi  uprising  on  the  other 
had  made  a  hell  of  the  Soudan.     Either  it  would 


THE   CHRISTIAN    KNIGHT   ERRANT        26I 

have  to  be  subdued  at  great  expense  of  money  and 
life  or  it  would  have  to  be  abandoned.  The  British 
government  chose  the  latter  course  and  selected 
Gordon  to  go  up  and  withdraw  the  garrisons,  bring 
down  to  Egypt  all  who  wished  to  come,  and  leave 
the  land  to  the  old  ways.  But  this  was  easier  said 
than  done.  What  were  its  old  ways  ?  Was  it  to  be 
abandoned  to  the  Mahdi  who  was  making  anarchy, 
or  to  be  returned  to  the  old  chiefs  who  had  ruled 
before  Egypt  had  taken  over  the  country  ?  There  ia 
no  use,  however,  in  entering  the  controversy  as  to 
whether  Gordon  disobeyed  his  instructions.  Lord 
Cromer  has  stated  the  case  against  him.  But  some- 
thing more  can  be  said.  It  is  argued  on  the  other 
side  that  there  was  sufficient  disagreement  and  con- 
flict between  Egypt  and  England,  and  inside  the 
British  government,  between  the  permanent  depart- 
mental government  and  the  temporary  liberal  min- 
isterial government  to  account  for  the  pulling  and 
backing.  The  firm,  true  man  at  Khartoum  was  going 
to  do  his  duty  as  he  saw  it,  whatever  his  orders  might 
be.  Whether  he  disobeyed  his  instructions  or  not, 
he  was  entirely  capable  of  doing  so,  and  would  have 
done  so  in  an  instant  if  he  had  thought  that  God  and 
the  Soudan  required  him  to  do  so,  and  he  would  have 
taken  the  consequences,  as  he  would  have  put  it, 
"  without  a  twitter." 

The  end,  as  every  one  knows,  was  that  he  was  killed 
in  Khartoum  on  January  26th,  three  days  before  the 
relief  expedition  reached  the  city.  He  was  the  only 
Englishman  left.  He  had  already  come  to  feel  that 
there  would  have  to  be  some  such  atonement  made 
for  the  sins    of   England    against    Egypt  and  the 


262  CHARLES   GEORGE  GORDON 

Soudan.  '*I  feel  tliat  all  these  wrongs  can  only  be 
washed  out  in  blood,"  he  wrote  from  Jerusalem  in 
1883,  and  after  reaching  Khartoum  he  wrote  on 
March  4,  1884:  "May  our  Lord  not  visit  us  as  a 
nation  for  our  sins,  but  may  His  wrath  fall  on  me, 
hid  in  Christ.  This  is  my  frequent  prayer,  and  may 
He  spare  these  people,  and  bring  them  to  peace." 
And  beyond  this  he  felt  that  he  must  bear  the  sins 
of  the  poor  Soudanese,  too.  Four  days  after  this 
last  letter  he  wrote  to  some  friends  in  Jerusalem  : 

"I  am  ever  interceding  for  you  and  yours;  for  when 
Job  (xlii.  lo)  prayed  for  his  friends,  God  turned  his  cap- 
tivity. Make  little  Julia  ask  our  Lord  to  help  me.  In 
vain,  indeed,  is  the  help  of  man.  Yet  I  have  dared  to 
ask  that  the  sins  of  these  peoples  fall  on  me,  hid  in  Christ. 
.  .  .  Good-bye.  Many  thanks  to  you  and  Mr.  — 
for  your  prayers." 

His  last  letter  to  his  sister  was  dated  December 
14,  1884  : 

"  This  may  be  the  last  letter  you  will  receive  from  me, 
for  we  are  on  our  last  legs,  owing  to  the  delay  of  the 
expedition.  However,  God  rules  all,  and,  as  He  will 
rule  to  His  glory  and  our  welfare.  His  will  be  done.  I 
fear,  owing  to  circumstances,  that  my  affairs  pecuniarily 
are  not  over-bright." 

And  so  "  the  purest  Englishman  of  his  time,"  "  the 
most  restless  spirit  of  the  nineteenth  century"  died 
alone  ;  save  that  God  was  with  him. 

This  hasty  sketch  of  Gordon's  life  has  already 


THE   CHRISTIAN   KNIGHT   ERRANT        263 

indicated  some  of  his  qualities  of  character.  It  has 
suggested  that  he  was  a  religious  man.  I  say  "sug- 
gested," because  no  account  of  the  man  could  do  full 
justice  to  the  depth  and  earnestness  and  permeating 
reality  of  his  religious  faith.  The  best  expression  of 
it  is  in  his  "  Letters  to  His  Sister."  He  himself  was 
very  fond  of  a  Kempis'  "Imitation  of  Christ,"  and 
in  one  of  his  last  letters  thanks  his  sister  for  some 
copies  she  had  ordered  for  him.  But  for  us  his  own 
letters  are  as  good  and  stimulating  a  manual  of  devo- 
tion as  a  Kempis.  These  published  letters  are  almost 
altogether  on  religion.  They  show  no  perfunctory 
and  conventional  religious  life  but  a  man  of  fearless 
and  original  spiritual  experience. 

He  calls  himself,  quite  frankly,  "  a  religious  fa- 
natic." Eeligion  was  real  to  him:  "To  be  like 
Christ  :  what  a  deal  it  means,  and  how  very  feebly 
the  mass  of  the  world  realize  it !  .  .  .  What  an 
unsatisfactory  religion  it  is  that  takes  God's  promises 
as  mere  talk  !"  On  his  road  once  to  the  slave  den 
at  Shaka  he  wrote :  "I  do  not  believe  in  you  all. 
.  .  .  The  Christianity  of  the  mass  is  a  vapid, 
tasteless  thing,  and  of  no  use  to  anybody.  The  peo- 
ple of  England  care  more  for  their  dinners  than  they 
do  for  anything  else,  and  you  may  depend  on  it, 
it  is  only  an  active  few  whom  God  pushes  on  to  take 
an  interest  in  the  slave  question.  '  It  is  very  shock- 
ing !     "Will  you  take  some  more  salmon  ?  '  " 

His  religion  was  the  absorbing  thing  in  life.  He 
believed  in  God  the  Father  Almighty  and  in  Jesus 
Christ  His  only  Son  our  Lord.  And  this  faith  was 
so  complete  that  many  regarded  him  as  a  fatalist  and 
indeed  he  never  sought  to  tone  down  his  language. 


264      CHARLES  GEORGE  GORDON 

He  believed  in  tlie  sovereignty  of  God  and  the  war 
between  soul  and  flesh. 

"Man's  happiness,"  he  wrote  to  his  sister,  ''con- 
sists in  present  peace  even  in  the  midst  of  the  greatest 
trials,  and  in  more  than  hope  of  a  glorious  future. 
It  comes  by  trust  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  by  realiz- 
ing that  His  atonement,  as  Head,  suffices  for  the 
members  of  His  body,  and  cannot  be  cancelled  by 
any  acts  or  affected  by  any  merit  of  theii'S,  and  that 
it  is  a  finished  work  for  the  past  as  well  as  for  the 
future.  This  being  the  foundation  of  peaceful  happi- 
ness, it  is  experienced  according  as  the  sovereignty 
of  God  is  acknowledged  in  everything  even  our  sins." 

Elsewhere  he  writes  to  her, — and  it  would  be  easy 
to  find  illogical  and  contradictory  things  in  his  the- 
ology : 

"I  do  not  believe  in  man's  free  will;  therefore,  if  ray 
actions  are  right,  they  are  His  actions ;  if  evil,  they  are 
the  inevitable  produce  of  the  corrupt  body  in  which  I  am 
placed  by  Him. 

"  My  opinion  is  that  the  Brussels  Conference  is  doomed 
to  fail.  It  is  too  mighty  for  God  to  use  in  His  work.  He 
never  has  done  any  of  His  great  works  by  great  men. 

**  Those  who  hold  by  man's  free  will  must  consequently 
be  more  or  less  elated  if  they  do  well.  Now,  if  you  ac- 
cepted what  I  think  is  the  truth,  namely,  that  man  has  no 
free  will,  you  would  never  be  elated,  for  you  would  not 
arrogate  to  yourself  your  actions ;  neither  would  you  be 
depressed  by  your  evil  acts.  To  the  one  you  would  say, 
*  Thanks  to  God  for  that ' ;  and  to  the  other,  '  This  is 
nothing  more  than  the  outcomings  of  my  corrupt  nature.' 
Paul  says  this  in  his  '  Wretched  man  that  I  am  !'     I  feel 


THE   CHRISTIAN   KNIGHT  ERRANT        265 

sure  no  one  can  be  happy  till  he  has  come  to  this  knowl- 
edge. 

"You  and  I  are  flies  on  the  wheel;  try  and  realize 
this,  that  you  do  not  move  the  wheel."  ^ 

And  again  from  the  Soudan  in  1875  : 

*' The  moral  I  draw  .  .  .  is  that  my  earthly  shrine 
is  ordained  to  certain  evil  works,  and  my  spiritual  shrine 
is  ordained  to  certain  good  works ;  that  neither  in  one 
case  nor  the  other  can  I  alter  the  decree."  ^ 

And  the  same  year  : 

*'  I  consider  we  have  not  the  least  ground  for  supposing 
our  clever  thoughts  are  from  ourselves,  and,  in  spite  of  my 
feelings,  I  think  we  are  in  reality  only  spectators  of  the  un- 
rolling of  the  record  of  events. ' '  * 

He  loved  especially,  of  course,  to  dwell  on  the 
strengthening  conviction  that  God  was  ruling  things, 
and  that  he  needed  only  to  believe  on  Him  as  his 
' '  Governor-General. ' ' 

"  No  man  ever  had  a  harder  task  than  I,  unaided,  have 
before  me,"  he  said  during  his  first  period  in  the  Soudan, 
"but  it  sets  as  a  feather  on  me.  As  Solomon  asked,  I  ask 
wisdom  to  govern  this  great  people ;  and  not  only  will  He 
give  me  it,  but  all  else  besides.  And  why?  Because  I 
value  not  the  'all  besides.'  I  am  quite  alone  and  like  it. 
I  have  become  what  people  call  a  great  fatalist,  viz.  :  I 
trust  God  will  pull  me  through  every  difficulty.  The  soli- 
tary grandeur  of  the  desert  makes  one  feel  how  vain  is  the 

*  "Letters  to  His  Sister,  "p.  114  f.     «i&i(Z.,  p.  85.     Ubid.,  ]^.85. 


266      CHARLES  GEORGE  GORDON 

effort  of  man.  This  carries  me  through  my  troubles,  and 
enables  me  to  look  on  death  as  a  coming  relief,  when  it  is 
His  will.  .  .  .  It  is  only  my  firm  conviction  that  I 
am  only  an  instrument  put  in  use  for  a  time  that  enables 
me  to  bear  up ;  and  in  my  present  state,  during  my  long, 
hot,  weary  rides,  I  think  my  thoughts  better  and  clearer 
than  I  should  with  a  companion."  * 

On  the  way  to  the  Soudan  he  had  written  to  his 
Bister  ; 

"Even  really  religious  people  are  more  or  less  infidels. 
.  .  .  I  have  a  Bank,  and  on  that  I  can  draw ;  He  is 
richer  than  the  Khedive,  and  knows  more  of  the  country 
than  any  one ;  I  will  trust  Him  to  help  me  out  of  money 
or  any  other  difficulties."  ' 

His  rest  on  God  did  not  make  him  inactive.  His 
notion  was  that  we  could  not  say  God  had  ordained 
until  the  thing  was  done. 

"It  is  a  delightful  thing  to  be  a  fatalist,  not  as  that 
word  is  generally  employed,  but  to  accept  that,  when  things 
happen  and  not  before,  God  has  for  some  wise  reason  so 
ordained  them  to  happen — all  things,  not  only  the  great 
things,  but  all  the  circumstances  of  life ;  that  is  what  is 
meant  to  me  by  the  words  *  you  are  dead  '  in  St.  Paul  to 
Colossians."  Again:  "We  have  nothing  further  to  do 
when  the  scroll  of  events  is  unrolled  than  to  accept  them  as 
being  for  the  best.  Before  it  is  unrolled  it  is  another  mat- 
ter ;  and  you  could  not  say  I  sat  still  and  let  things  happen 
with  this  belief.     All  I  can  say  is,  that  amidst  troubles  and 

'  Hake,  "The  Story  of  Chinese  Gordon,"  p.  403 L 
"^  "  Letters  to  His  Sister,"  p.  62 f. 


THE   CHRISTIAN   KNIGHT   ERRANT        267 

worries  no  one  can  have  peace  till  he  thus  stays  upon  his 
God ;  it  gives  a  man  a  superhuman  strength. 

"Everything  that  happens  to-day,  good  or  evil,  is  settled 
and  fixed,  and  it  is  no  use  fretting  over  it.  The  quiet,  peace- 
ful life  of  our  Lord  was  solely  due  to  His  submission  to 
God's  will.  There  will  be  times  when  a  strain  will  come 
on  one;  and  as  the  strain,  so  will  your  strength  be."  * 

And  it  was  strength  and  action  to  Gordon. 

"The  people  were  amazed  by  his  daring,  his  firmness, 
his  irresistible  energy.  To  tell  a  lazy  functionary  that  if 
he  did  not  get  on  with  his  work  the  Governor-General 
would  be  after  him,  was  better  than  the  whip  itself.  Every- 
where the  cry,  'The  Pasha  is  coming,'  became  a  signal 
for  action.  At  such  a  pace  did  he  traverse  the  continent 
he  ruled  that  his  camels,  which  under  another  rider  could 
have  gone  for  ten  days,  gave  in  at  the  sixth.  More  than 
once,  when  the  sun  was  at  its  fiercest,  they  dropped  dead 
beneath  him.  When  this  happened,  he  took  a  new  mount 
and  rode  on.'" 

This  faith,  or  fatalism,  as  yon  please,  delivered  him 
fi'om  the  fear  of  death  or  other  harm.  '*I  wonld 
that  all  could  look  on  death  as  a  cheerful  friend  who 
takes  us  from  a  world  of  trial  to  our  real  home."  He 
once  told  Huxley  that  death  would  only  be  an  incident 
to  him,  that  it  would  simply  mean  a  larger  govern- 
ment to  administer. 

**I  wish,  I  wish,"  he  wrote  from  the  Soudan  in 
1878,  "the  King  would  come  again  and  put  things 

1  Hake,  "  The  Story  of  Chinese  Gordon,"  p.  404 f, 
*lbid.,  p.  326. 


268      CHARLES  GEORGE  GORDON 

right  on  earth  ;  but  His  comiug  is  far  off,  for  the 
whole  world  must  long  for  Him  ere  He  comes,  and  I 
really  believe  that  there  are  but  very,  very  few  who 
would  wish  Him  to  appear,  for  to  do  so  is  to  desire 
death,  and  how  few  do  this  !  Not  that  we  really  ever 
die  ;  we  only  change  our  sheaths."  '  So  he  carried  no 
weapons.  He  did  shoot  men  at  times  with  his  own 
hand,  but  his  idea  of  warrior's  work  was  not  destruc- 
tion but  constructive  government,  and  he  would  not 
have  men  killed  if  it  could  be  helped.  He  con- 
stantly released  those  whom  ordinary  principles  of 
warfare  would  have  removed.  In  China  he  simply 
carried  a  little  wand  of  bamboo  in  his  hand  and  when 
he  went  to  the  Soudan  in  1884  among  his  first  acts 
were  the  removal  of  the  whips  and  the  release  of  the 
prisoners.  He  governed  by  loftier  means.  "  I  do  not 
carry  arms,"  he  wrote  in  his  playful  way  from  Africa, 
' '  as  I  ought  to  do,  for  my  whole  attention  is  devoted 
to  defending  the  nape  of  my  neck  from  mosquitoes." 
But  if  he  did  not  carry  weapons  he  did  carrj'^  his 
Bible. 

"  The  chief  proof,  after  all,"  he  said,  "  that  the  Bible  is 
good  food  is  the  eating  of  it ;  the  healing  efficacy  of  a 
medicine,  when  it  is  used,  is  a  demonstration  that  it  is 
good.  I  believe  the  origin  of  evil  is  disclosed  in  the  Bible, 
and  I  have  notes  on  it  but  it  is  not  yet  clear  to  me.  '  He 
that  is  of  God  heareth  God's  words  :  ye  therefore  hear 
f/iem  not,  because  ye  are  not  of  God  '  (John  vii.  47).  I  like 
my  religion  ;  it  is  a  greatcoat  to  me."  ^ 

"  Why  then,"  he  writes  in  a  letter  from  Mauritius  in 
1881,  "  do  we  not  progress  ?     It  is  because  we  do  not  look 

'  "  Letters  to  His  Sister,"  p.  135,  *  Ibid.,   p.  xii. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  KNIGHT  ERRANT        269 

for  the  answer  to  our  prayers — we  pray  and  leave  it ;  we 
read  the  Scriptures  and  do  not  follow  the  connection  be- 
tween prayer  and  this  reading,  between  our  request  and  its 
answer ;  so  we  are  barren,  lame  and  dull.  Now  God  has 
opened  my  eyes  to  the  truth,  that  it  is  by  the  Scriptures 
that  He  will  speak  to  man,  and  rarely  will  He  speak  in  any 
other  way  ;  I  would  almost  say  never.  Any  one  who  asked 
a  favour  or  help  from  a  fellow  man,  and  who,  through  ig- 
norance or  carelessness,  did  not  trouble  hunself  to  listen  to 
the  answer,  would  be  considered  wanting  in  worldly 
wisdom."  ^ 

And  his  letters  are  full  of  comments  on  tlie  Bible 
and  of  exegesis,  which,  however  fanciful,  at  least  was 
authenticated  by  his  own  life.  Fanciful  exegesis 
lived  in  the  life  is  better  than  the  sound  exegesis  of 
spiritual  death.  The  Bible  used  at  Gravesend,  on 
the  Danube,  and  in  his  first  stay  in  the  Soudan,  was 
presented  by  his  sister  to  Queen  Victoria,  who  wrote 
in  the  warmest  gratitude  in  reply.  It  was  a  well- 
worn  book.  Gordon  found  time  to  read  his  Bible. 
As  he  said  : 

'<  There  is  a  material,  actual  study  of  the  Scriptures 
necessary  in  order  to  know  them,  which  we  cannot  have  if 
we  do  not  give  the  time  to  such  actual  study,  which  few  of 
us  do."  ^ 

And  sixteen  years  before  he  had  written  to  her  : 

"  Make  Him  your  Guide  ;  you  do  not  want  any  other. 
He  has  said,  '  I  will  teach  you  all  things  '  ;  and,  depend 
on  it,  you  will  find  it  the  shortest  course  to  pursue. 

»  "  Letters  to  His  Sister,"  p.  177  f.  ^ lUd.,  p.  266. 


270      CHARLES  GEORGE  GORDON 

"  You  say  you  have  little  time  to  read  ;  you  have  from  six 
to  eight  every  morning.  I  own  it  is  not  pleasant  to  flesh 
and  blood  ;  but,  if  this  trouble  is  much,  the  corresponding 
growth  in  grace  is  far  greater,  VVe  must  not  deceive  our- 
selves; we  have  plenty  and  plenty  of  time  during  the  day 
for  ourselves.  If  we  aspire  to  walk  in  the  power  of  the 
new  life,  we  must  cast  away  all  hindrances,  and  it  must 
cost  something  we  really  value. 

"  I  own  it  is  dull  when  we  do  not  feel  much  in  common 
with  those  we  pray  for,  but  after  a  time  it  will  grow  into 
love,  and  at  any  rate  it  is  honouring  to  God  and  keeps  us 
from  thinking  of  things  of  no  import ;  it  also  tends  to  make 
us  less  selfish.  Take  the  Holy  Spirit  for  your  teacher, 
and  you  will  never  want  another  word  from  man  on  ques- 
tions of  doctrine."  ^ 

He  had  no  high  opinion  of  systematic  theology. 

"  I  think  the  veil  is  thickened,"  he  said,  "by  the  doc- 
trines of  men,  and  that  to  rend  it  is  more  difficult  when 
these  doctrines  have  been  accepted  and  found  inefficient. 
Had  you  not  been  imbued  with  them — had  God  not  willed 
it  in  His  wisdom — you  would  not  have  had  such  suffering 
in  learning  the  truth. 

"  I  believe  when  we  begin  life  we  are  far  more  capable 
of  accepting  those  truths  than  afterwards ;  when  we  have 
imbibed  man's  doctrine  we  must  unlearn  and  then  learn 
again — a  child  has  only  to  learn. 

"  I  feel  sure  that  no  study  without  trial  is  of  avail ;  life 
must  be  lived  to  learn  these  truths.  I  believe,  if  a  man 
knows  his  Bible  fairly  and  then  goes  forth  into  the  world, 
God  will  show  him  His  works."  ^ 

•  "  Letters  to  His  Sister,"  p.  14  £.  » Ibid.,  pp.  95,  97. 


THE   CHRISTIAN   KNIGHT   ERRANT        27I 

I  think  we  begiu  to  see  that  this  was  a  rare  sort  of 
warrior  and  Governor- General.  We  have  never 
known  much  of  this  sort  of  Governor-General.  We 
had  such  warriors  in  Stonewall  Jackson  and  Robert  E. 
Lee  and  O.  O.  Howard  and  S.  C.  Armstrong,  There 
was  a  good  deal  of  Gordon's  quality  in  General  Arm- 
strong, more  "patient  continuance  in  well  doing," 
and  as  much  of  the  child  faith. 

Gordon  was  both  a  mystic  and  a  man  of  prayer. 
From  the  Cape  he  wrote  in  1882  : 

"  How  different  things  look  now  that  we  see  that  union 
with  God  is  rest,  disunion  is  unrest !  that  is  the  whole 
secret ;  it  is  not  what  we  do  or  leave  undone,  it  is  not  this 
or  that  sin,  all  is  summed  up  in  union  or  disuniofi^  ^ 

From  Jerusalem  in  1883  : 

"There  is  no  doubt,  I  think,  that  very  many  know  the 
fact  of  the  indwelling  of  God,  but  how  little  do  they 
meditate  on  what  that  indwelling  is  !  I  would  fain  attain 
to  the  realization  of  Christ  as  sitting  by  me."  * 

And  the  same  year  from  Jaffa  : 

"There  is  nothing  that  may  not  be  perverted;  the 
Sacrament,  reading  the  Bible,  intercessory  prayer,  all  may 
be  made  gods  of — of  this  there  is  no  doubt.  We  tend  to 
make  gods  of  everything  we  do.  If  we  can,  as  it  were, 
get  a  pull  over  our  neighbours,  then  we  think  we  are  bet- 
ter than  they.  We  should  look  on  everything  as  a  means 
of  realizing  His  indwelling ;  the  Scriptures  only  do  that, 
the  Sacrament  only  does  that,  intercessory  prayer  only 
does  that." 
»  ♦'  Letters  to  His  Sister,"  p.  209.  » Ibid.,  p.  235. 


272      CHARLES  GEORGE  GORDON 

Prayer  did  it  with  him.  From  Gravesend  he 
wrote:  "Prayer  is  spiritual  labour."  So  Armstrong 
regarded  it  as  ''the  best  work  he  ever  did." 
Gordon's  letters  are  full  of  references  to  prayer,  dis- 
cussions of  prayer,  requests  for  prayer.  In  Khartoum 
he  gave  to  the  correspondent  of  the  London  Times 
whom  he  liked,  his  copy  of  Newman's  ''Dream  of 
Gerontius."  This  was  his  only  possession  which 
came  out  of  Khartoum.  It  was  worn  and  under- 
lined, and  these  were  some  of  the  marked  lines  : 

"  Pray  for  me,  oh,  my  friends." 

"  'Tis  death,  oh,  loving  friends,  your  prayers, 

'tis  he." 
"So  pray  for  me,  my  friends,  who  have  not 

strength  to  pray." 
"  Use  well  the  interval." 
"Prepare  to  meet  thy  God." 

On  his  last  journey  to  Khartoum,  meeting  the  Eoman 
Catholic  Bishop  Sogaro,  he  said  to  him,  ' '  Do  not  for- 
get me  in  your  prayers."  And  as  he  coveted  prayer 
in  his  behalf,  so  he  was  himself  ever  praying  for 
others. 

"  Praying  for  the  people  ahead  of  me  whom  I  am  about 
to  visit,"  he  wrote  from  the  Soudan,  "gives  me  much 
strength,  and  it  is  wonderful  how  something  seems  already 
to  have  passed  between  us  when  I  meet  a  chief  (for  whom 
I  have  prayed)  for  the  first  time.  On  this  I  base  my  hopes 
of  a  triumphant  march  to  Fascher.  I  have  really  no  troops 
with  me,  but  I  have  the  Shekinah,  and  I  do  like  trusting 
to  Him  and  not  to  men.  Remember,  unless  He  gave  me 
the  confidence  and  encouraged  me  to  trust  Him,  I  could 


THE   CHRISTIAN   KNIGHT  ERRANT        273 

not  have  it ;  and  so  I  consider  tliat  I  have  the  earnest  of 
success  in  this  confidence."  ' 

And  he  knew  well  the  purifying  power  of  prayer. 
**I  pray  for  those  I  envy,"  he  wrote,  "and  the  feel- 
ing leaves  me  at  once." 

A  man  who  had  such  an  inner  life  as  this  of  course 
uttered  it  in  his  conversation.  Gordon  was  not  a 
reticent  soul  who  never  spoke  of  those  things  in  which 
he  most  deeply  believed.  His  letters  to  his  sister 
were  a  prolonged  unfolding  of  his  religious  ideas  and 
his  spiritual  life. 

He  lamented  that  so  few  people  took  any  interest 
in  the  subjects  of  conversation  that  were  most  worth 
while  to  him.  He,  nevertheless,  always  fearlessly 
spoke  his  own  mind.  He  told  Huxley  his  opinion 
about  personal  immortality.  He  concealed  his  re- 
ligious opinions  from  no  one.  And  when  he  could 
he  worked  for  Christ. 

"I  hope,  D.  v.,"  he  wrote  to  his  sister  in  1881,  "to 
put  myself  in  communication  with  some  of  our  Scripture- 
reading  people,  and  shall  try  and  visit  Christ  who  is  in  the 
East  end  in  the  flesh  (Matthew  xxv.  34).  I  feel  this  is 
what  I  shall  like ;  these  truths  were  not  given  to  make  a 
man  idle.'" 

"Addresses  in  vague  terms  from  the  pulpit,"  he  said, 
"  do  not  arrest  attention ;  it  is  only  by  direct  attack  in 
simple,  plain  words ;  and  to  do  that  we  must  use  a  bold- 
ness not  of  our  own  but  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  Whose  name 
we  would  speak.     Let  us  strive  to  make  those  around  us 

>  Hake,  "The  Story  of  Chinese  Gordon,"  p.  298. 
»  "  Letters  to  His  Sister,"  p.  163. 


274      CHARLES  GEORGE  GORDON 

know  that  truth,  and  the  way  to  do  so  is  to  live  in  it  our- 
selves, for  *  if  ye  abide  in  Me  ye  shall  ask  what  ye  will 
and  it  shall  be  done.'  "  ^ 

He  felt  the  temptation  to  envious  and  evil  speech. 
He  was  no  untempted  saint.  "  We  are  all  dreadfully 
prone  to  evil  speaking,  but  God  is  all-powerful 
against  it ;  it  is  opposed  to  His  nature,  so  He  hates 
it"     From  Jerusalem  in  1883  he  wrote  : 

**  Sins  in  act  are  not  nearly  so  frequent  as  sins  in  word ; 
both  are  sequences  of  the  breach  of  communion,  of  the 
non-realization  of  the  indwelling  of  God. 

"Comfort  yourself  as  to  the  actual  fact  of  death;  I 
have  a  great  desire  for  it."  ^ 

"Most  people,"  he  complained,  "only  nibble  at 
these  great  subjects."  And  again,  "This  is  one 
great  reason  why  I  never  desire  to  enter  social  life, 
for  there  is  very  great  difficulty  in  knowing  people 
and  not  discussing  others." 

And  he  knew  more  about  temptation  and  sin  than 
this  : 

"  Who  could  bear  to  be  known  as  God  knows  us  ? 
When  all  is  quiet,  our  friends  agree  that  '  in  the  flesh 
dwelleth  no  good  thing  '  ;  but  if  a  fall  takes  place,  they 
belie  by  their  acts  what  they  have  said  in  words,  and  they 
are  surprised,  showing  that  they  do  not  really  believe  it 
practically,  but  only  theoretically."  ' 

1  "  Letters  to  His  Sister,"  p.  15.  « Hid.,  p.  240 f. 

» Ihid.,  p.  27. 


THE  CHRISTIAN   KNIGHT   ERRANT        275 

Again, 

"  We  are  all  lepers.  Some  have  their  leprosy  covered 
with  silk,  some  with  tattered  rags ;  take  off  the  silk  and 
take  off  the  rags,  there  are  the  lepers  I  Cover  the  face  and 
cry,  '  Unclean,  unclean  !  '  The  leper  in  rags  shows  more 
to  the  fleshly  eye  of  his  leprosy  than  the  leper  in  silk."  ^ 

And  again, 

"  Every  one  who  pretends  to  be  better  than  his  fellow 
is  a  hypocrite  (Isa.  ix.  17)." 

He  lived  resolutely  at  his  life,  however.  As  he 
grew  in  knowledge  of  Christ,  he  grew,  of  course,  in 
knowledge  of  his  own  shortcomings. 

"One  thing  I  find  is  that,  as  we  advance  in  union  with 
Christ,  we  get  more  and  more  sensitive  to  our  deficiencies; 
this  is  only  natural,  but  it  certainly  does  keep  one  very 
much  alive — I  expect,  because  one  is  unused  to  the  frame 
of  mind."  ^ 

As  he  discovered  temptations  he  attended  to  them. 
From  the  Soudan  in  1874,  he  wrote  : 

"  Keep  me  from  writing  and  talking,  and  then  I  am 
humanly  safe.  As  a  rule,  Christians  are  really  more  in- 
consistent than  'worldlings.'  They  talk  truths,  and  do 
not  act  on  them.  They  allow  that  '  God  is  the  God  of 
the  widows  and  orphans,'  yet  they  look  in  trouble  to  the 
gods  of  silver  and  gold :  either  He  can  help  altogether,  or 
not  at  all.  He  will  not  be  served  in  conjunction  with 
idols  of  any  sort."  ^ 

»  "  Letters  to  His  Sister,"  p.  44.  » IMd.,  p.  199. 

Ubid.,  p.  70. 


276  CHARLES   GEORGE   GORDON 

And  from  Mauritius  in  1882  : 

"  I  have  come  to  a  conclusion ;  may  God  give  me 
strength  to  keep  it !  Stop  all  the  newspapers.  It  is  no 
use  mincing  the  matter;  as  the  disease  is  dire,  so  also 
must  be  the  remedy. 

"These  are  the  words  which  have  done  this:  'My 
son,  unglue  thyself  from  the  world  and  its  vanities.  Put 
on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  find  Him  thy  wisdom,  righteous- 
ness, redemption,  thy  riches,  thy  strength,  thy  glory ' 
('  Christ  Mystical ').  Somehow  I  thought  it  must  come  to 
this  ere  long.  If  I  ever  need  to  know,  or  give  my  opinion 
on  any  subject,  then  Christ  will  give  me  the  necessary  wis- 
dom. Newspapers  feed  a  passion  I  have  for  giving  my 
opinion  ;  therefore,  as  we  have  no  right  to  judge  and  have 
nothing  to  do  with  this  world  (of  which  we  are  not)  this 
feeding  must  be  cut  short."  * 

He  did  not  attempt  to  escape  from  life  by  any  seclu- 
sion. He  realized  that  in  the  open  we  must  do  our 
work  and  learn  our  lesson. 

"The  giving  up  the  papers,"  he  says,  "may  cause  the 
starvation  of  my  passion  for  politics,  and  that  scab  may 
drop  off.  God  has  shown  me  what  the  scabs  are :— Evil 
speaking,  lying,  slandering,  backbiting,  scoffing,  self-con- 
ceit, boasting,  silly  talking,  and  some  few  more. 

"  I  would  not  wish  to  be  rid  of  these,  unless  God  so 
willed  it,  for  they  keep  me  down,  and  prevent  my  tread- 
ing on  my  weaker  brethren,  which  I  should  be  sure  to  do 
if  I  was  rid  of  them.  The  Canaanites  (Ex.  xxiii.  28,  29) 
are  good,  for  otherwise  the  beasts  will  increase.  So  that 
»  "  Letters  to  His  Sister,"  p.  193. 


THE   CHRISTIAN   KNIGHT   ERRANT        277 

I  cannot  say,  any  more  than  Israel  could,  what  I  shall  do 
or  where  I  shall  go,  I  believe  I  shall  not  be  confounded. 
I  asked  to  know  Christ's  life;  it  may  be,  it  is  being  taught 
me,  in  actual  experience  as  far  as  my  measure.  We  would 
like  to  know  Christ's  life  in  our  rooms,  from  the  Bible  ; 
God  teaches  it  to  us  actually  ^^y  the  trials  of  this  life.^'  * 

"  And  yet,"  wrote  he,  "it  is  quite  impossible  to  be  with 
the  world  and  to  be  spiritually  minded  ;  the  conflict,  when 
one  tries  to  do  so,  is  enough  to  rend  one  in  two."  ^ 

The  world  calls  such  a  man  a  fanatic,  but  at  the 
same  time  it  erects  him  into  its  noblest  hero  because 
of  his  fearlessness,  his  unselfishness,  his  sincerity. 
He  was  a  religious  man  through  and  through  but  as 
human  and  unconventional  as  man  could  be.  Pear- 
son, of  the  party  of  Church  Missionary  Society  mis- 
sionaries who  went  in  1878  to  Uganda  by  way  of 
Khartoum,  wrote  of  these  qualities  in  Gordon  in  his 
account  of  their  interview  : 

"August  8,  1878. — On  going  to  the  palace  at  two 
o'clock,  of  course  the  guard  turned  out,  and  several 
kavasses  ushered  us  up-stairs,  and  in  a  large  corridor  we 
saw  a  table  laid  for  lunch,  and  a  little  man  in  his  shirt- 
sleeves walking  about.  I  took  him  for  the  butler.  On 
looking  through  the  open  doors  opposite  saw  a  very 
splendid  divan  with  a  round  table  in  the  middle,  on 
which  was  a  bunch  of  flowers;  several  looking-glasses  on  the 
walls.  But  on  catching  sight  of  us  the  '  butler  '  rushed  up 
and  said,   'How  d'ye  do?     So  glad  to  see  you;   excuse 

»  "  Letters  to  His  Sister, "  p.  194,  *  Ibid.,  p.  161. 


278  CHARLES   GEORGE   GORDON 

shirt- sleeves,  so  hot  !  awful  long  voyage.  I'll  make  a  row 
about  it.     Are  you  very  angry  with  me  ?  '  "  ^ 

He  hated  formality  and  fuss.  When  he  first  went  to 
Khartoum,  ''  to  his  disgust  he  had  to  live  in  a  palace 
as  large  as  Marlborough  House.  Some  two  hundred 
servants  and  orderlies  were  in  attendance ;  they 
added  to  his  discomfort  by  obliging  him  to  live 
according  to  the  niceties  of  an  inflexible  code  of 
etiquette.  He  was  sternly  forbidden  to  rise  to  re- 
ceive a  guest,  or  to  offer  a  chair ;  if  he  rose,  every 
one  else  did  the  same  ;  he  *  was  guarded  like  an  ingot 
of  gold.'  This  formality  was  detestable  to  him  ;  but 
he  made  a  good  deal  of  fun  of  it,  and  more  than  once, 
while  certain  solemnities  were  proceeding,  he  would 
delight  the  great  chiefs,  his  visitors,  by  remarking 
in  English  (of  which  they  knew  nothing),  '  Now,  old 
bird,  it  is  time  for  you  to  go.'  "  ^ 

His  journals  and  letters  show  his  very  real  humanity. 

"A  very  real  and  human  man  he  was,"  says  Mr.  Stan- 
nard  in  his  personal  recollections  of  him, — "  as  great,  as 
good,  and  as  true  as  any  have  described  him ;  not  a 
colourless  saint  without  a  flaw  or  fault  to  retrieve  his  good- 
ness from  monotony — as  some  would  apparently  have  us 
conceive  him — but  a  man  whose  genius  was  too  brilliant, 
and  whose  parts  were  too  strong  to  be  without  correspond- 
ing weaknesses,  and  prejudices  almost  as  marked  as  his 
talents.  If  I  describe  his  peculiarities  as  well  as  his  good- 
ness, it  will   not  be  to  detract  from  his   reputation,  but 

*  "History  of  Church  Missionary  Society,"  Vol.  Ill,  p.  103. 
«  Hake,  "The  Story  of  Chinese  Gordon,"  p.  292. 


THE   CHRISTIAN   KNIGHT   ERRANT        279 

rather  to  enhance  it ;  for  who  could  have  loved  Gordon  as 
we  did  if  he  had  been  nothing  more  than  a  model  of  all 
the  virtues  ?  "  ^ 

"Well,  he  "waa  model  enough  of  the  virtue  of  plain 
speaking,  untrimming  veracity.  These  were  his 
principles  in  that  matter  as  he  wrote  them  to  his 
sister  in  1869  : 

"  I  cannot  say  what  very  quiet,  relying  comfort  there 
is  in  doing  everything  quite  openly  and  irrespective  of  the 
consequences.  We  are  weak  and  uncomfortable  when  we 
act  for  man's  view  of  things  ;  it  is  humbugging  God  in 
reality,  not  man,  and  as  surely  as  we  do  that  we  shall  reap 
the  reward.  The  things  may  be  comparatively  small,  but 
a  very  immense  principle  is  involved  in  them.  It  is  most 
wonderful  what  power  and  strength  are  given  to  us  by 
living  for  God's  view  and  not  man's.  I  do  many  things 
which  are  wrong,  and  I  can  say  truly  that,  thanks  to  God, 
I  am  comforted  in  all  the  troubles,  because  I  do  not  con- 
ceal them  from  Him.  He  is  my  Master,  and  to  Him 
alone  am  I  accountable.  If  I  own  in  my  heart  that  I  am 
culpable,  I  have  such  comfort  that  I  do  not  care  what  my 
fellow  man  says.  We  are  most  awful  liars,  every  one  of 
us,  utterly  false ;  it  is  no  use  mincing  it.  '  Trust  in  the 
Lord  with  all  your  hearts  and  lean  not  on  your  own  un- 
understanding.' 

"A  lie  is  told  either  to  gain  something  or  to  conceal 
something.  By  telling  it  the  person  trusts  more  to  what  he 
may  say  having  an  effect  on  the  person  he  addresses,  than 
he  does  to  the  fact  that  God  knows  what  is  in  his  heart 
and  can  actuate  as  He  wills  the  heart  of  the  hearer.     He 

*  "Gordon  Anecdotes,"  p.  141. 


28o      CHARLES  GEORGE  GORDON 

reasons  thus :  *  There  is  no  God ;  I  am  quite  free,  and  it 
is  in  my  power  to  say  this  or  that.     .     .     .' 

**  If  you  tell  the  truth,  you  have  infinite  power  support- 
ing yon  ;  but,  if  not,  you  have  infinite  power  against  you. 
The  children  of  kings  should  be  above  all  deceit,  for  they 
have  a  mighty  and  a  jealous  Protector.  We  go  to  other 
gods — Baal,  etc., — when  we  lie;  we  rely  on  other  than 
God.  We  may  for  a  time  seem  to  humbug  men,  but  not 
God.  It  is  indeed  worldly  silliness  to  be  deceitful.  Who 
can  stand  against  the  honest,  *  I  did  it,  and  I  am  sorry  it 
has  vexed  you  '  ?  Who  is  then  the  highest,  the  judge  or 
the  culprit?  The  latter  may  say  in  his  heart,  '  A  Higher 
than  thou  hath  forgiven  me,  and  I  care  not  what  thou.  His 
subject,  may  do.'  Oh  !  be  open  in  all  your  ways.  It 
is  a  girdle  around  your  loins,  strengthening  you  in  all  your 
wayfarings. 

"  Do  not  ignore  the  Third  Person's  presence.  Where 
there  are  two  gathered  together  for  whatever  purpose, 
there  is  He  also,  ready  to  help  to  the  uttermost,  and  more 
than  willing.  Let  people  tell  lies  of  you.  He  will  blunt 
the  shafts. 

"Do  you  want  to  be  loved,  respected,  and  trusted  ?  Then 
ignore  the  likes  and  dislikes  of  man  in  regard  to  your 
actions ;  do  to  them  as  you  would  have  them  do  to  you, 
leave  their  love  for  God,  taking  Him  only ;  you  will  find 
that,  as  you  do  so,  men  will  like  you  ;  they  may  despise 
some  things  in  you,  but  they  will  lean  on  you  and  trust 
you,  and  He  will  give  you  the  spirit  of  comforting  them. 
But  try  to  please  men  and  ignore  God,  you  will  fail  miser- 
ably and  get  nothing  but  disappointment. 

"The  ninety-first  Psalm  is  a  mountain  of  strength  to  all 
believers,  as  is  also  the  twentieth  verse  of  the  thirty-first 
Psalm. 


THE  CHRISTIAN   KNIGHT  ERRANT        28 1 

"If  a  man  speaks  well  of  me,  divu^e  it  by  millions  and 
then  it  will  be  millions  of  times  too  favou  Uiaj.  ff  a  man 
speaks  evil  of  me,  multiply  it  by  millions  and  it  will  be 
millions  of  times  too  favourable.  Man  is  disguised,  as  far 
as  his  neighbour  is  concerned  ;  this  disguise  is  his  outward 
goodness.  .  .  .  Nothing  evil  was  ever  said  of  any 
man  which  was  not  true  ;  his  worst  enemies  could  not  say 
a  thousandth  part  of  the  evil  that  is  'n  him."  ^ 

And  this  fearless  righteousness  was  the  girdle  of 
his  loins.     From  the  Soudan  iu  1876  he  wrote  : 

"The  more  one  acts  from  principle  and  not  from  feel- 
ings, the  straighter  is  our  course.  No  one  can  be  perfectly 
honest,  but  the  nearer  one  can  be  so  the  stronger  one  is, 
and  the  wish  is  accepted  as  the  deed.  To  deceive  when 
you  have  knowledge  of  the  fact  is  a  lie  to  all  intents  and 
purposes.  (Footnote — '  The  willful  suppression  of  truth 
is  a  lie.' — Latin  adage.)"  ' 

And  in  1877  : 

"  I  thank  God  He  has  given  me  strength  to  avoid  all 
tricks ;  to  tell  them  (the  slave-dealers)  that  I  would  no 
longer  allow  their  goings  on,  and  to  speak  to  them  truth- 
fully." ' 

And  as  he  sought  nothing  but  the  truth,  he  feared 
nothing  from  the  opposition  or  criticism  of  others. 
He  would  say,  as  his  letter  about  lies  indicates,  that 
no  one  could  abuse  him  too  much.     To  claim  to  be 

1 "  Letters  to  His  Sister,"  pp.  23-26.  »  Md.,  p.  98. 

^Ibid.,  p.  112. 


282  CHARLES  GEORGE  GORDON 

superior  to  others  he  called  hypocrisy.  So  he  -was 
regardless  of  what  others  thought  about  hiin.  * '  Do 
not  think  I  am  ill-tempered,"  he  wrote  after  the 
Taiping  war,  "but  I  do  not  care  one  jot  about  my 
promotions  or  what  people  may  say."  He  hated 
conventional  society,  and  felt  sure  as  we  have  seen 
that  if  Christ  came  back  to  it  He  would  be  "alto- 
gether outr6." 

"  You  may  think  I  am  cantankerous,"  he  wrote  to  his 
sister  from  the  Soudan  in  1875 ;  "so  I  am,  but  it  is  on 
principle.  I  will  not  cater  to  this  world's  appetites,  nor  be 
drawn  into  its  coteries  and  squabbles.  What  have  we  in 
common  ?  They  think  men  deserve  credit  for  this  or  that. 
I  do  not  think  so.     Am  I  to  agree  with  them  ?  "  ^ 

God  deserves  all  the  credit  for  what  men  do. 

"I  do  not  believe,"  he  said,  "  in  the  foresight  of 
Napoleon  or  the  Duke.  People  made  out  the  talent 
and  foresight  after  the  thing  was  done.  God  gives 
the  thought,  man  carries  it  out,  for  the  thought  is 
given  so  strongly  as  to  force  him  to  act  thus."  ^ 
When  he  resigned  the  secretaryship  to  Lord  Ripon, 
he  wrote,  "I  am  glad  to  have  cast  off  every  anchor 
I  had  to  attach  me  to  this  world."  From  Mauritius, 
"  How  I  hate  society  !  How  society  hates  me  !  " 
And  after  the  unpleasant  experience  in  South  Africa  : 

"  Whether  men  praise  you,  it  does  not  make  you  better, 
or  whether  they  blame  you,  it  does  not  make  you  worse. 
God  judges  by  motives,  men  by  actions  (Thomas  a 
Kempis).     When  I  went  to  the  Cape,  I  prayed  for  glory  to 

»  "  Letters  to  His  Sister,"  p.  88 f.  » Ibid.,  p.  128. 


THE   CHRISTIAN   KNIGHT  ERRANT        283 

God  and  the  welfare  of  the  people,  so  I  am  glad  /got  no 
glory  out  of  it."  ^ 

The  world  had  no  dominion  over  such  a  man, — 
**the  man  whom  other  men  fear  and  yet  trust," — 
those  are  the  words  about  him  written  in  the  copy  of 
Hake's  "Story  of  Chinese  Gordon  "  which  I  have 
read,  by  an  old  man  who  was  one  of  the  best  students 
of  character  I  ever  knew. 

Of  a  piece  with  this  freedom  and  independence  of 
mind,  and  springing  from  the  same  source,  was  Gor- 
don's modesty.  To  the  illustrations  already  given  of 
it,  I  would  add  several.  From  Mauritius  he  wrote 
in  1882  : 

"  I  have  to  thank  God  for  several  precious  working 
truths — '  God  forbid  that  I  should  glory  '  is  one.  It  is 
connected  with  idols  in  one's  heart.  One  hugs  a  thought 
of  some  sort  or  another  about  politics  or  such  like.  God 
shoots  an  arrow  at  it  and  it  becomes  dust.  Again,  the 
only  way  to  fight  Anak  is  to  keep  in  union  with  God  in 
Christ — when  one  goes  out  or  in,  when  one  writes  or  re- 
ceives a  letter,  meets  or  speaks  to  any  one.  This  is  what 
is  meant  by  the  jealousy  of  God  ;  He  will  be  partners  with 
us  entirely  in  all  we  do  or  think. 

"He  also  has  been  gracious  enough  to  let  me  see  the 
benefits  derived  from  earthly  snubs  ;  they  are  reminders  of 
Him,  like  the  iron  belt  or  hair  shirt  of  the  old  monks ;  one 
is  so  very  forgetful  that  one  needs  these  thorns,  though 
they  are  no  longer  thorns  when  they  give  this  benefit,  but 
are  healthful  lancet  stabs. 

"  Another  truth  God  gave  me  is  that  the  Holy  Ghost 

1  "  Letters  to  His  Sister,"  p.  210. 


284  CHARLES  GEORGE  GORDON 

must  participate  in  our  Scripture  reading;  that  we  must  in 
mind  keep  in  union  with  Christ.  Thank  God  also,  I  can 
now  pray  and  wish  that  every  one  in  the  world  were  holier 
than  I  am, — higher  than  I  in  the  future  world."  ^ 

**  When  he  went  to  Gravesend,  he  used  to  take  his  place 
in  the  gallery  of  the  parish  church  among  the  poor.  No- 
body in  the  town  knew  anything  about  his  history,  and  he 
was  allowed  to  keep  to  this  place  in  the  gallery,  until  by 
and  by  it  began  to  leak  out  that  he  was  no  other  than  the 
leader  of  the  '  Ever-victorious  Army  '  in  China.  Then 
the  church  wardens  approached  the  stranger,  and  graciously 
asked  him  to  come  down  and  occupy  a  place  in  the  luxu- 
rious seats  in  the  area  appointed  for  the  grandees.  Gordon 
thanked  them,  but  declined,  preferring  to  keep  the  seat  in 
which  he  had  so  long  sat  unnoticed  and  unknown."  ^ 

I  have  related  the  story  of  his  tearing  out  page 
after  page  from  the  biography  which  has  been  written 
of  him.  One  who  saw  much  of  him  at  that  time  and 
who  relates  that  incident,  adds : 

"  I  tried  to  get  at  the  bottom  of  this  feeling  of  his,  tell- 
ing him  he  might  be  justly  proud  of  these  things  ;  but  was 
answered  that  no  man  has  a  right  to  be  proud  of  anything, 
inasmuch  as  he  has  no  native  good  in  him — he  has  re- 
ceived it  all ;  and  he  maintained  that  there  was  deep 
cause  for  intense  humiliation  on  the  part  of  every  one,  that 
all  wearing  of  medals,  adorning  the  body,  or  any  form  of 
self-glorification,  was  quite  out  of  place.  Also,  he  said, 
he  had  no  right  to  possess  anything,  having  once  given 
himself  to  God. 

»  "  Letters  to  His  Sister,"  p.  191. 
»  "  Gordon  Anecdotes,"  p.  106. 


THE   CHRISTIAN   KiNIGHT   ERRANT        285 

**  He  had  a  great  number  of  medals,  for  which  he  cared 
nothing.  There  was  a  gold  one,  however,  given  to  him 
by  the  Empress  of  China,  with  a  special  inscription  en- 
graved upon  it,  for  which  he  had  a  great  liking.  But  it 
suddenly  disappeared ;  no  one  knew  where  or  how. 
Years  afterwards  it  was  found  out,  by  a  curious  accident, 
that  Gordon  had  erased  the  inscription,  and  sent  the 
medal  anonymously  to  Canon  Miller  for  the  relief  of  the 
sufferers  from  the  cotton  famine  at  Manchester."  ^ 

The  disinterestedness  of  soul,  the  devotion  to  duty 
for  its  own  sake  alone  was  the  dominant  character- 
istic of  the  man.  It  greatly  impressed  the  world. 
To  him  it  was  only  a  matter  of  course  that  men  should 
do  their  duty  and  die  for  it  without  concern.  Salary 
was  no  consideration  whatever  to  him.  He  would 
often  refuse  what  was  offered.  When  he  was  called 
to  China  in  1881  he  telegraphed,  "  As  for  conditions, 
Gordon  indifferent."  He  did  not  require  that  his 
calls  should  stipulate  the  wages.  He  gave  away  his 
money  constantly  to  relieve  human  need.  After  the 
capture  of  Soochow  during  the  Taipiug  Eebellion, 
the  Chinese  government  ordered  that  he  be  given  a 
donation  of  10, 000  taels  and  a  decoration  of  the  first 
class.  Gordon  was  still  indignant  at  the  treachery  of 
Li  Hung  Chang  in  murdering  the  Taiping  leaders  after 
having  promised  to  preserve  their  lives,  and  when  the 
treasure-bearers  entered  his  presence,  with  bowls  of 
bullion  on  their  heads,  he  flogged  them  from  the 
chamber  with  his  "magic  wand."  When  the  Ee- 
bellion was  over,  he  stipulated  for  ample  rewards  for 
his  officers  and  men,  but  refused  to  take  anything 
^Hake,  "The  Story  of  Chiuese  Gordon,"  p.  226f. 


286  CHARLES   GEORGE   GORDON 

himself.  His  salary  duriug  the  war  he  had  spent  in 
comforts  for  his  army  and  in  the  relief  of  the  Chinese. 
His  conduct  was  a  revelation  to  the  Chinese.  The 
day  before  Bruce  was  leaving  for  England,  Prince 
Kung,  the  Eegent  of  China,  came  to  him  and  said  : 
"You  will  be  astonished  to  see  me  again,  but  I  felt 
I  could  not  allow  you  to  leave  without  coming  to  see 
you  about  Gordon.  We  do  not  know  what  to  do. 
He  will  not  receive  money  from  us." 

This  was  the  motive  and  spirit  in  which  Gordon 
gave  his  service.  He  went  out  into  the  world  as  the 
missionary  goes,  not  to  get  but  to  give,  content  with 
a  bare  living  and  eager  only  to  do  work  for  the  good 
of  men,  to  fight  lies,  to  establish  truth,  to  erect 
righteousness.  *'  If  you  take  the  case  of  this  man," 
said  Mr.  Gladstone  after  his  death,  "  pursue  him 
into  privacy,  investigate  his  heart  and  his  mind,  and 
you  will  find  that  he  proposed  to  himself  not  any 
ideal  of  wealth  and  power,  or  even  fame,  but  to  do 
good  was  the  object  he  proposed  to  himself  in  his 
whole  life,  and  on  that  one  object  it  was  his  desire  to 
spend  his  existence." 

Before  he  left  for  the  Soudan  in  1873  he  wrote  : 

"I  have  been  more  or  less  acted  on  by  sharks,  who 
want  to  go  with  me  for  money.  I  have  told  them  that,  if 
it  is  in  my  power  to  employ  them,  they  must  belong  to  the 
A  class — ;'.  e.,  those  who  come  for  the  occupation  and 
interest  it  may  give  them,  and  who  are  content  if  they  are 
fairly  reimbursed  their  expenses ;  not  the  B  class,  who  go 
for  the  salary  only  and  who  want  to  make  a  good  thing 
of  it. 

"  My  object  is  to  show  the  Khedive  and  his  people  that 


THE  CHRISTIAN   KNIGHT   ERRANT        287 

gold  and  silver  idols  are  not  worshipped  by  all  the  world. 
They  are  very  powerful  gods,  but  not  so  powerful  as  our 
God ;  so,  I  refuse  a  large  sum  ;  you — and  I  am  responsible 
alone — will  not  be  angry  at  my  doing  so.  From  whom 
does  all  the  money  come  ?  From  poor  miserable  creatures 
who  are  ground  down  to  produce  it.  Of  course,  these 
ideas  are  outrageous.  '  Pillage  the  Egyptians  ! '  is  still  the 
cry."  1 

He  hated  the  pillaging  of  the  weak,  and  all  selfish 
exploitation  of  men.  He  held  to  the  old-fashioned 
notions  of  honour  and  sincerity  and  unselfishness, 
and  he  sought  simply  to  ameliorate  the  lot  of  the 
people  whom  God  gave  him  opportunity  to  help.  He 
sought  to  do  this,  not  as  a  matter  of  political  prin- 
ciple, but  as  a  moral  duty  and  privilege,  and  he 
sought  to  do  it,  not  by  political  expedients  only  but 
by  the  glorious  power  of  a  Christlike  life.  How  dif- 
ferent the  influence  of  Christianity  in  Asia  and  Africa 
and  South  America  would  have  been  if  all  our  repre- 
sentatives from  the  East  had  been  such  men.  The 
trouble  is  that  our  movement  upon  the  non- Christian 
world  is  a  contradiction  in  itself.  "VVe  preach  a  pure 
religion  and  we  too  often  show  the  non-Christian 
nations  an  immoral  life,  commercial  greed,  and  an 
unjust  political  code.  A  great  part  of  the  influence 
of  Eastern  diplomacy  and  commerce,  judged  by 
Gordon's  standard,  has  been  sheer  treason  alike  to 
Christianity  and  to  the  interests  of  the  less  privileged 
nations.  Chinese  Gordon  is  a  standing  illustration 
of  the  missionary  character  of  the  true  representative 
of  a  Christian  nation  wherever  he  goes. 

1  "  Letters  to  Hia  Sister,"  p.  69. 


288      CHARLES  GEORGE  GORDON 

The  people  to  whom  Gordon  went  always  discovered 
what  he  was.  He  invariably  entered  with  deepest 
sympathy  into  their  lives.  Thus  he  writes  from  the 
Soudan  in  1877  :  "I  confess  to  being  somewhat  tired 
of  the  length  of  these  negotiations,  etc.,  etc.  ;  but  it  is 
better  to  be  tired  and  worn  than  that  one  poor  black 
skin  should  have  a  bullet-hole  in  it."  ^ 

"  I  feel  strongly,"  he  wrote  years  later  from  Jaffa 
in  1883,  ''  that  the  grace  God  gave  me  to  pray  for  my 
enemies  in  the  Soudan  led  to  my  success."  He  made 
men  love  him  with  a  great  love.  During  the  Taiping 
Eebellion  he  drew  about  him  captured  Taipiugs,  so 
that  at  the  last  his  personal  body-guard  was  made  up 
of  his  former  enemies.  He  had  a  simply  magic  gift 
of  inspiring  confidence,  even  in  the  hearts  of  savages. 
Mr.  Power,  the  London  Times  correspondent,  wrote 
of  his  influence  in  Khartoum  : 

**  Gordon  is  a  most  lovable  character — quiet,  mild, 
gentle  and  strong ;  he  is  so  humble,  too.  Tlie  way  he 
pats  you  on  the  shoulder  when  he  says,  '  Look  here,  dear 
fellow,  now  what  do  you  advise  ? '  would  make  you  love 
him.  When  he  goes  out-of-doors,  there  are  always  crowds 
of  Arab  men  and  women  at  the  gate  to  kiss  his  feet,  and 
twice  to-day  the  furious  women,  wishing  to  lift  his  feet  to 
kiss  them,  threw  him  over.  Numbers  of  women  flock  here 
every  day  to  ask  him  to  touch  their  children,  to  cure  them  ; 
they  call  him  the  'father  and  the  saviour  of  the  Soudan.' 
He  has  found  me  badly  up  in  Thomas  a  Kempis,  which 
he  reads  every  day,  and  has  given  me  an  '  Imitation  of 
Christ.'  He  is,  indeed,  I  believe,  the  greatest  and  best 
man  of  this  century." 

'  "Letters  to  His  Sister, "  p.  112f. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  KNIGHT  ERRANT        289 

Again  he  writes  : 

"I  like  Gordon  more  and  more  everyday;  he  has  a 
most  lovable  manner  and  disposition,  and  is  so  kind  to 
rne.  He  is  glad  if  you  would  show  the  smallest  desire  to 
help  him  in  his  great  trouble.  How  one  man  could  have 
dared  to  attempt  his  task  I  wonder.  One  day  of  his  work 
and  bother  would  kill  any  other  man,  yet  he  is  so  cheer- 
ful at  breakfast,  lunch,  and  dinner ;  but  I  know  he  suffers 
fearfully  from  low  spirits.  I  hear  him  walking  up  and 
down  his  room  all  night  (it  is  next  to  mine).  It  is  only 
his  great  piety  carries  him  through. ' ' 

He  handled,  men  with  the  most  daring  freedom. 
He  would  trust  when  others  would  imprison.  He 
would  march  among  hosts  of  armed  foes  and  manage 
them  as  he  would.  He  did  not  do  it  by  duplicity  or 
diplomacy  but  by  straightforwardness  and  truth. 
The  boy  Capsune,  whom  Gordon  rescued  from  slavery 
one  day,  said  that  he  was  '  ^  quite  sure  Gordon  Pasha 
could  see  quite  well  in  the  dark,  because  he  had  the 
light  inside  him."  ''Have  nothing  to  do  with  the 
Turk,"  he  once  said  to  General  Butler.  "I  know 
him  well.  He  is  hopeless. ' '  But  he  would  not  have 
been  hopeless  in  Gordon's  hands.  His  faith  and  love 
would  never  have  abandoned  any  people. 

To  dwell  further  on  Gordon's  energy,  vigour,  love 
of  hard  tasks,  ceaseless  activity,  patience  in  duty  and 
restless  impatience  until  duty  was  done,  his  thought 
of  detail  and  his  wrath  at  mere  routine  and  its  petty 
mechanicalism,  the  thoroughgoing  honesty  of  his 
work,  would  be  but  to  draw  out  the  great  warm 
living  qualities  which  I  am  sure  we  have  already  felt 
in  the  man.     I  have  only  in  bringing  this  study  to  a 


290  CHARLES  GEORGE   GORDON 

close  to  deal  a  little  more  directly  with  his  mission- 
ary relations. 

But  one  great  missionary  lesson  of  his  life  and  char- 
acter has  been  already  drawn, — the  lesson,  namely, 
of  the  right  character  and  the  right  purpose  in  the 
secular  representation  of  what  we  call  Christian 
civilization.  What  a  worthless  thing  it  is  to  send 
men,  who  know  nothing  about  the  Christianity  from 
which  civilization  springs  and  which  is  its  very 
guarantee,  out  to  the  non-Christian  world  as  its  am- 
bassadors !  But  a  more  direct  lesson  for  us  is  the 
lesson  of  Christian  character,  of  relationship  to 
Christ,  of  joyful  devotion  to  duty,  of  contempt  for 
hardship  and  sacrifice  and  death  as  parts  of  the 
game,  ''as  a  matter  of  course,"  of  sympathy  and 
understanding,  as  all  essential  to  the  religious  mis- 
sionary. We  cannot  all  have  Chinese  Gordon's  per- 
sonality, but  every  Christian  man  should  study  his 
life  and  resort  to  its  secret  springs.  Would  that  we 
had  more — thank  God  we  have  so  many — men  of  the 
same  high  type,  men  of  the  old  chivalry,  prepared 
and  tuned  to  our  own  day's  duty  who  still  go  forth 
with  the  knightly  Spirit,  reverencing  conscience  as 
king,  to  war  against  evil  and  to  give  help  to  all  that 
calls  them  and  to  serve  the  Lord  Christ. 

But  Gordon  sustained  also  some  interesting  direct 
relations  to  the  organized  missionary  enterprise.  It 
was  his  work  on  the  upper  Nile  that  led,  with  Stanley's 
letter  regarding  Uganda,  to  the  establishment  of  the 
Church  Missionary  Society  Mission  in  Eastern  Equa- 
torial Africa,  now  become  perhaps  the  most  remark- 
able foreign  mission  in  the  world.  When  the  second 
party  was  sent  out  it  went,  on  Gordon's  offer  of  as- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  KNIGHT  ERRANT        291 

sistance,  via  Khartoum.  When  he  heard  of  the 
murder  of  the  first  missionaries  he  wrote  to  the 
Church  Missionary  Society  :  ''I  will  engage  to  send 
up  safe  any  persons  you  may  wish  to  send,  to  secure 
you  free  passage  for  letters,  etc.,  and  to  do  this  free 
of  cost  within  my  government.  .  .  .  Don't  send 
*  luketoarms.'  "  And  when  the  party  came  he  sent  it 
on  by  his  steamer  and  at  his  personal  expense  right 
up  to  the  frontier  of  Uganda. 

He  had  strong  notions  as  to  the  kind  of  men  needed 
in  Africa  for  mission  work,  and  he  had  characteristic 
opinions  as  to  this  work  in  the  region  of  which  he 
knew.  He  had  the  greatest  admiration  for  Living- 
stone as  a  ^missionary.  He  rejoiced  at  all  the  mis- 
sionary effort  made  for  all  these  countries,  but  his 
ideals  were  as  high  for  it  as  they  were  for  himself. 
Thus  he  wrote  to  a  party  of  missionaries  on  their  way 
to  the  interior  of  Africa  : 

"  I  want  you  to  like  my  people,  not  to  look  upon  them 
as  utterly  evil.  Mr.  Wright  has,  I  dare  say,  told  you  my 
views  about  missionaries.  They  must  hate  father,  mother 
and  their  own  life  also.  You  are  sure  to  succeed  if  you 
will  entirely  trust  Him.  Shut  your  eyes  to  Stanley,  to 
Egyptian  government,  to  all  things,  and  nothing  will  go 
wrong,  and  you  must  succeed,  though  it  may  not  be  as 
you  would  think  the  best  way.  You  have  counted  the 
cost  and  embarked  in  this  work  for  His  sake,  and,  though 
inferior  far,  for  our  nation's  sake.  You  must  go  through 
with  it.  Are  you  missionaries?  So  am  I.  The  letter 
must  be  one  which  he  who  runs  can  read — f/ie  life."  ^ 

He  did  not  care  greatly  for  sky-scraping  missionary 
*  "  Gordon  Anecdotes,"  p.  152. 


292      CHARLES  GEORGE  GORDON 

enterprises.  He  was  very  outspoken  in  his  comments 
and  criticisms  on  what  he  considered  wrong  in  the 
spirit  in  which  missionary  work  was  entered  upon. 

There  is  one  letter  to  his  sister  written  from  Mas- 
sowah  in  1878,  in  which  he  writes  freely  about  mis- 
sion work  in  North  Africa  : 

"  What  you  ask  requires  me  to  be  plain-spoken.  There 
is  not  the  least  doubt  that  there  is  an  immense  virgin  field 
for  ati  apostle  in  these  countries  among  the  black  tribes. 
They  are  virgin  to  my  belief,  and  the  apostle  would  have 
nothing  to  contend  with  in  the  fanaticism  of  the  Arabs. 
But  where  will  you  find  an  apostle  ?  I  will  explain  what 
I  mean  by  that  term.  He  must  be  a  man  who  has  died 
entirely  to  the  world  ;  who  has  no  ties  of  any  sort  \  who 
longs  for  death  when  it  may  please  God  to  take  him ;  who 
can  bear  the  intense  dullness  of  these  countries ;  who  seeks 
for  few  letters ;  and  who  can  bear  the  thought  of  dying 
deserted.  Now,  there  are  few,  very,  very  few  men  who  can 
accept  this  post.     But  no  half-measures  will  do.     .     .     . 

"A  man  must  give  up  everything,  understand  every- 
thing, everything,  to  do  anything  for  Christ  here.  No  half 
nor  three-quarter  measures  will  do.  And  yet,  what  a 
field!     .     .     ." 

Such  men  Gordon  wanted  for  himself,  such  he 
thought  missions  ought  to  have.  In  1877  he  had 
written  on  his  road  to  Shaka : 

"  Find  me  the  man  and  I  will  take  him  as  my  help,  who 
utterly  despises  money,  name,  glory,  honour ;  one  who 
never  wishes  to  see  his  home  again  ;  one  who  looks  to  God 
as  the  source  of  good  and  the  controller  of  evil ;  one  who 
has  a  healthy  body  and  energetic  spirit,  and  who  looks  on 


THE  CHRISTIAN  KNIGHT  ERRANT        293 

death  as  a  release  from  misery ;  and  if  you  cannot  find  him 
then  leave  me  alone.  To  carry  myself  is  enough  for  me — 
I  want  no  other  baggage."  ^ 

What  would  not  a  score  of  such  men  accomplish  in 
any  cause  which  might  win  them  ? 

I  have  already  said  that  Gordon  was  no  impec- 
cable, faultlessly  regular  man.  He  was  like  the 
winds  of  spring.  They  blow  where  they  list  and  you 
cannot  tell  whence  they  come  or  whither  they  go. 
No,  not  just  so,  for  you  know  he  came  from  God  and 
went  to  God.  Here  he  saw  many  things  and  lived 
them.  He  felt  and  lived  the  enigmas  of  which  life  is 
full  and  he  did  not  suppress  the  paradoxes,  the  in- 
consistencies. 

But  he  wrought  for  the  truth  as  he  saw  it,  and  his 
consolation  in  the  midst  of  opposition  and  failure 
and  at  last  in  death  was  that  '  *  everything  is  for  the 
best."  That  was  ever  his  philosophy.  God  was  un- 
folding His  will.  Let  man  be  still.  In  life  and 
death  this  satisfied  him. 

"Man  must  die,"  he  wrote  from  the  Holy  Land,  "to 
the  things  of  the  world  before  he  can  produce  any  fruit ; 
this  is  certain.  What  is  death  to  the  things  of  the  world  ? 
It  is  to  be  counted  an  idiot,  an  idealist,  an  impossible  sort 
of  person,  a  theorist,  an  indiscreet  person,  an  (apparent) 
condoner  of  evil,  an  enthusiast,  a  mean-spirited  person, 
etc.,  etc.  It  is  not  prayer-meetings,  or  churchgoing,  or 
parish-visiting. 

"  I  speak  of  myself.  In  my  spiritual  nature,  I  despise 
the  world,  its  praise  or  blame.     I  know  of  nothing  to  be 

»  Butler,  '•  Gordon,"  p.  136. 


294      CHARLES  GEORGE  GORDON 

admired  in  my  body  or  its  actions  from  my  birth  to  this 
day.  The  world's  praises  are  satires  on  me  ;  its  blame  is 
just,  though  not  from  right  motives.  In  my  bodily  nature 
I  scheme  and  work  as  if  everything  depended  on  my  send- 
ing this  or  that  telegram,  or  my  ordering  this  or  that ;  but, 
thank  God,  my  spiritual  nature  rules,  and  I  can,  when  ex- 
posed to  rebuffs,  fall  back  on  that  spiritual  nature  and  be 
comforted."  * 

So  while  he  lived  he  rested  on  the  living  God  whose 
home  above  all  worlds  was  yet  within  his  own  heart, 
and  now  that  he  has  died,  it  is  as  he  said,  just  as 
though  the  grain  had  escaped  the  sheath,  the  sword 
were  from  its  scabbard  drawn.  The  servant  who  had 
ruled  well  here  has  gone  on,  and  there  in  the  bound- 
less countries  of  God  has  received  '^  a  greater  govern- 
ment to  administer." 

Three  monuments  have  been  erected  to  his  memory. 
One  is  the  statue  in  Trafalgar  Square  of  the  solitary 
figure  looking  out  for  the  relief  that  did  not  come. 
The  second  is  the  great  tablet  in  St.  Paul's  with  its 
noble  inscription  : 

Major  General  Charles  George  GordoUy  C.  B. 
wJio  at  all  times  and  everywhere  gave  his  strength  to 
the  weak,  his  substance  to  the  poor,  his  sympathy  to 
the  suffering,  his  heart  to  God 
Born  at  Woolwich  28  Jan.,  1833 
Slain  at  Khar'toum  26  Jan. ,  1885 
He  saved  an  empire  by  his  warlike  genius,  he  ruled 
vast  provinces  with  justice,  wisdom  and  power ;  and 
lastly,  obedient  to  his  sovereign's  command,  he  died 
in  the  heroic  attempt  to  save  men,  women  and  chil- 
dren from  imminent  and  deadly  peril.     Greater 
love  hath  no  man  than  this,  that  a  man  lay  down 
his  life  for  his  friends. 

*  "  Letters  to  His  Sister,"  p.  274. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  KNIGHT  ERRANT        295 

And  the  third  and  noblest  of  all  is  the  statue  of  Gor- 
don on  a  dromedary  in  the  public  square  at  Khar- 
toum. The  man  and  the  dromedary  are  not  facing 
the  river  by  which  he  might  at  any  time  have 
escaped,  nor  the  palace  where  he  ruled  and  fell,  but 
they  are  gazing  out  over  the  desert,  the  great  desert 
with  its  hopeless  tribes,  whose  mute  cry  for  help  he 
alone  heard  and  in  whose  sob  he  caught  the  accents 
of  the  voice  of  God.  This,  at  the  end,  as  through  all 
his  days,  had  been  the  secret  of  his  power. 

^*  For  this  man  was  not  great 
By  wealth  or  kingly  state 

By  bright  sword  or  knowledge  of  earth's  wonder, 
But  more  than  all  his  race 
He  saw  life  face  to  face, 
And  heard  the  still  small  Voice  above  its  thunder." 

I  pray  that  in  our  study  of  him  and  of  these  other 
leaders  in  the  great  movement  which  is  slowly  work- 
ing out  the  purpose  of  God  in  the  world,  some  one 
here  also  may  have  been  enabled  to  look  life  full  in 
the  face  and  to  hear  whispering  above  it  the  heavenly 
call  to  the  wider  ministry  of  man  and  the  deeper 
service  of  God. 


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Form  I,-a 
2jm-:/l3(.-;205) 


««* 


7t983 


AT 


BR1703   .S74s 

y 


L  009  602  037  5 


